Christ’s New Fresto

Christ’s College will be hoping for a picture perfect Easter Sunday, when they unveil their revamped altar.

The reredos, by Leverhulme Artist in Residence Tom de Freston, will be blooded during a special Anglican Choral Evensong.

De Freston, who supervises in the History of Art Faculty, is hoping his two pieces will “provide a visual and spiritual fulcrum” to the chapel.

The St. Edmund’s alumnus has received wide acclaim, from the Arch Bishop of Canterbury to the Director of The Tate, and is hoping to resurrect the chapel’s decor.

Described as his masterpiece, Christ’s alumnus Most Rev Rowan Williams said de Freston’s achievement was: “to juxtapose a passive and an active image in a physical medium that seems to be like deep water.”

Computer generation of de Freston’s work

Poet Ruth Padel described the images in a specially produced catalogue as being: “about the flesh but also how to go beyond it.”

The catalogue was also fleshed out by Tate director Sir Nicholas Serota.

The reredos are designed to represent a binary narrative of rise and fall, and will reside alongside a sculpture by Sir Anthony Caro.

The Revd Christopher Woods, College Chaplain said:  “In this chapel, we have had the great Caro sculpture of ‘The Deposition’ in our midst for ten years.

“Now, in 2011 we have also have the de Freston altarpiece: new reflection for our time on the human reality of falling to the depths of despair, yet rising again abundantly to life and hope again.”

This will not be de Freston’s first contribution to Christ’s art collection. His “epic sized ‘History Painting’ ” resides in their MCR.

The resident artist also has a series of works on display in the University Library until June, embodying the spirit of  ‘Paradise Lost’ by another Christ’s alumnus – Milton.