Station 12 by Maria Gabankova
Station 12, Maria Gabankova
As you may know, this past Lenten Season, we invited our church into an urban pilgrimage, walking the stations of the cross through the Crossings Toronto Art Exhibition. We were grateful not only to have hosted one of the stations during the exhibit (a prayer machine created by artist James Paterson), but also to display the work from another station at Doors Open in May—its creator is part of our congregation!
After Doors Open, Maria Gabankova—renowned portrait artist, former associate professor at OCADU, and active adherent of our church—allowed us to host her artwork a little longer in our sanctuary. So we wanted to take the opportunity to share a bit more insight into her piece and let you know, as well, that she is always glad to speak about her work if you see her at church!
Thank you Maria for sharing your work with us and thanks be to God for the opportunity for Maria’s and other artists’ work to be shared with our city this Spring. May the impressions and thoughts stirred by these works continue to stir curiosity and faith in many!
Learn more about Maria’s work at paintinggallery.ca.
Station 12, Maria Gabankova
ARTIST STATEMENT
This station represents Christ’s last moments on the cross, when He speaks to His Mother and the apostle John, entrusting them to each other. My intent was to compose and interpret these three figures and a gathering of other figures, from both past and present.
In my work for Crossings, my rendering of the Lord Jesus Christ’s body and face is based on a combination of various paintings of crucifixions. Here parts of the figures are sourced from other artists, for example I alter the facial expressions, their age, clothing and add other details from today’s world.
Part of the space around the cross and background is covered with reflective mirror-like material Mylar, which is positioned in order to show the distorted reflections of the viewers standing in front of this Station. The idea being that a Mirror of Truth displays humanity's true condition, which can be changed only through accepting God’s gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. So the central theme here is to invite people into the crucifixion scene to participate in the drama and be moved by its meaning.
Crossings Toronto was an outdoor arts exhibition (March 2–April 27, 2022) organized by Imago. The different locations allowed people to make a “pilgrimage” to the various stations, located in downtown and midtown Toronto. The artworks were created by 16 Canadian artists in response to the Scriptural Stations of the Cross and are uniquely relevant expressions capturing both the Passion narrative and its implications for our world.
