Image credit: TJMov
Marking Space (A drawing of the Garden Chapel of St Werburgh)
(2025)
[Gold leaf on wire]
This small sculpture provides a rough outline of The Garden Chapel of St Werburgh – a Russian Orthodox chapel founded by my Grandmother, Barbara Worth, in the back garden of her semi-detached home. The chapel was built using the largest shed available from B&Q and was complete with a gold onion dome which was originally made from papier-mâché before being replaced with a fibreglass one after the papier-mâché one melted in the rain. My Granny’s conversion to Russian Orthodoxy was never fully understood by my family. As a child, visiting Granny’s house meant asking permission to visit the chapel to light a candle, breathe in stale incense and damp, and gaze at the solemn saints peering down from the icon-covered walls. It didn’t occur to me until much later that other people’s Grannys didn't have chapels in their back gardens. My Granny died in 2008 when I was seventeen and the garden chapel of St Werburgh has gone, but my vicarious experience of her faith and determination to transform the mundane into the sacred continues to have a profound impact on my art practice.
[Gold leaf on wire]
This small sculpture provides a rough outline of The Garden Chapel of St Werburgh – a Russian Orthodox chapel founded by my Grandmother, Barbara Worth, in the back garden of her semi-detached home. The chapel was built using the largest shed available from B&Q and was complete with a gold onion dome which was originally made from papier-mâché before being replaced with a fibreglass one after the papier-mâché one melted in the rain. My Granny’s conversion to Russian Orthodoxy was never fully understood by my family. As a child, visiting Granny’s house meant asking permission to visit the chapel to light a candle, breathe in stale incense and damp, and gaze at the solemn saints peering down from the icon-covered walls. It didn’t occur to me until much later that other people’s Grannys didn't have chapels in their back gardens. My Granny died in 2008 when I was seventeen and the garden chapel of St Werburgh has gone, but my vicarious experience of her faith and determination to transform the mundane into the sacred continues to have a profound impact on my art practice.
Image credit: TJMov