Station 14

Passion Flower
Pate de verre glass
100 x 32 x 5 cm
Image courtesy of the artist

There is something here of the dignity of the community that lays the bodies of the ones who die in their resting places. They are forced to reflect on all the questions raised by mortality and finitude and often in the process draw on religious rituals to help find the meaning in the death.

I have been curious and drawn to the symbols and imagery we use to memorialise the departed and in particular the ‘immortelles’ the long lasting floral tributes found at gravesites prior to their plastic replacement in more modern times. As I have wandered through Cemeteries I am impressed by the dignity and beautiful imagery represented through intricate carvings of objects and headstones that provides insights into the departed life and their beliefs and the family’s reflection on mortality.

For this exhibition I have focused on the Passion Flower and its presence in Christian beliefs as imagery of the Passion, Christ’s suffering and redemptive sacrifice at his death. The Passion Flower’s distinctive anatomy supposedly resembles the instruments of Christ’s Crucifixion.

Biography

Denise Pepper (BVA) is a Western Australian artist and recipient of the 2017 WA Sculptor Scholarship at Cottesloe Sculpture by the Sea (SxS). Pepper’s art practice translates textiles-based research into unique hand crafted art. Pepper won the 2012 National Ranamok Art Glass Prize, the People’s choice awards at Kirra Gallery Illuminating Glass Award 2015 and the Joondalup Community Invitation Art Award in 2015. Pepper is the recipient of the City of Bayswater Sculpture Awards for the last two years. Pepper regularly exhibits in Australia and Overseas, and a regular participant at SxS Cottesloe and Bondi.