The Body and Blood of Christ is a sculpture that Laura Facey created more than six years ago for the first Curator's Eye exhibition at the National Gallery of Jamaica in 2004. On display in the gallery's lobby surrounded by other art works, it did not resonate the sense of serenity it might, had it been viewed alone. Now Laura Facey is giving it the attention it deserves by placing it on show in the pristine gallery space that she has carved out for herself at the Pan-Jamaican building in New Kingston. This exhibition area though small, is sided by double-height sheets of glass that allow viewers (and even those passing by outside) to see the work from multiple vantage points.
The work itself is impressive. It's an exquisite over size torso of Christ that brings to mind the artist's earlier handling of the male form in her controversial monument Redemption Song (2003). But, delicately covered with gold leaf, it resonates on a higher frequency. The small blood red gash on the body's left side and the red roses surrounding the installation are the only additions; grounding this giant form in a quiet humility typical of Laura Facey's work. In the explanatory text Laura tells how she came to make this piece and her preoccupations with the holy sacrament "...emptying one's soul of all negative beliefs." Her ideas, so poetically expressed through Mother Mary Clare's poem, need no further interpretation. Alongside Body and Blood of Christ (2004) they form the perfect prayer for Easter, and for peace.