Released during Advent 2020, this episode provides an opportunity to reflect on our collective experience of living through Coronavirus in 2020.
Gillian talks with internationally renowned sculptor and artist, Peter Walker, who has created an exhibition called 'Leaves of the Trees' which is touring Cathedrals across the United Kingdom. The exhibition offers a moment to reflect and to hope together.
Peter is Artist in currently Residence at Lichfield Cathedral. The episode was recorded during September 2020, on the threshold of another Coronavirus lockdown and without any news of a vaccine. The many topics they cover in this conversation include:
- Peter's experience of lockdown.
- How he came to be Artist in Residence at Lichfield Cathedral.
- Cathedrals as spaces as and for art.
- Tension between expectations and experiences in a Cathedral.
- Why people go to Cathedrals.
- Powerful stories of art as healing.
- How Peter deals with the responsibility of art as healing.
- What assumptions are made of Peter and his art.
- The new 'Leaves of the tree' exhibition created by Peter.
- The significance of the word hope in the exhibition.
- The relationship between rationality and emotion.
- The invigorating potential of a blank canvas.
