Becoming Chris Kamalski

When Grief Grips Your Throat.

Chris Gollon was commissioned by St. John on Bethnal Green in East London to create a modern interpretation of the Stations of the Cross beginning in 2001.  His surrealist approach to the tradition 14 stations invokes an emotive response that I have never before seen within the traditionally stoic, distant, almost lifeless Stations that most churches typically employ.  In a future Holy Week, I wish to elaborate upon these 14 Stations, but for now, ponder Station 14: Jesus Is Laid In The Sepulchre.  

Alone in a sea of endless graves. A typical Soshanguve Saturday morning at the cemetery.

A Gospel Reading

It was the Day of Preparation, and to avoid the bodies’ remaining on the cross during the Sabbath—since that Sabbath was a day of special solemnity—the Jews asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken away.  Consequently the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with him and then of the other.  When they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, so instead of breaking his legs, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance; and immediately there came out blood and water.  This is the evidence of one who saw it—true evidence, and he knows that what he says is true—and he gives it so that you may believe as well.  Because all this happened to fulfill the words of scripture: Not one bone of his will be broken; and again, in another place scripture says: they will look to the one whom they have pierced.  After this, Joseph of Arimathaea, who was a disciple of Jesus—though a secret one because he was afraid of the Jews—asked Pilate to let him remove the body of Jesus.  Pilate gave permission, so they came and took it away.  Nicodemus came as well—the same one who had first come to Jesus at night-time—and he brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds.  They took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, following the Jewish burial custom.  At the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in this garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been buried.  Since it was the Jewish Day of Preparation and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.  (John 19:31-42, NJB)