An Angus sculptor’s stunning new piece of public art has been unveiled at a Glasgow church.
Assembly by Michael Visocchi now adorns St Rollox in the city’s Sighthill and features 77 concrete crosses.
The piece comprises 33 different styles of Christian cross – one representing each year of Jesus’s life before he was crucified.
Commission prize
Mr Visocchi won a £45,000 commission to create the artwork.
His design was selected by a jury chaired by congregation minister, the Rev. Jane Howitt.
The 44-year-old visual artist, who works out of an old schoolhouse in Glenprosen, took two years to make the crosses.
They represent a variety of Christian traditions such as Coptic, Byzantium, Catholicism and Presbyterianism.
Assembly includes the St Andrew’s Cross, Iona Cross, the Manx cross from the Isle of Man and the Hasta Cross, which is two and a half metres long.
Mr Visocchi said: “The idea is each cross represents the diversity of people who attend St Rollox Church.
“It’s a metaphor for what goes on behind the walls and the work’s title references the General Assembly of ministers and elders of the Church of Scotland.”
Asylum seekers
St Rollox in Sighthill is one of the Kirk’s most diverse congregations.
Its outreach project has been supporting asylum seekers and refugees in Glasgow from war-torn countries like Kosovo, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq for the last 20 years.
The Angus artist said: “I always hope that an artwork like this means something to the people and community who commissioned it.
“Perhaps it will inspire teaching and sermons over the years.
“The piece also resembles a flock of migrating birds in a way, which refers to the distance that people within the congregation have come to settle in Glasgow.
“So, there is a poetic element to it and I hope the piece reflects that.”
Each cross was made in wood before being cast in concrete.
St Rollox is a £2.5 million community hub church opened in October 2019.
Kirk minister Ms Howitt said she and the congregation are delighted with the piece.
“The work is very cleverly designed and draws you in when you start to look at it.
“It makes you think and question what the cross is,” she added.
“It is a piece that brings the church outside into the community and by using various cruciform designs strongly identifies the building as a church.
“Michael is becoming an increasingly well-known sculptor and I imagine that anyone who has an interest in modern sculpture will find their way to St Rollox to admire his work.
“I reckon it will become a significant piece of work within the art world in time.”
Whaling project
Mr Visocchi is a graduate of the Glasgow School of Art.
In 2007 he was the youngest artist to be elected to the Royal Scottish Academy of Art and Architecture.
He is currently working on a commission that will recognise decades of industrial-scale whaling in South Georgia, Antarctica.
The sculpture will be one of the most remote installations in the world.
It will celebrate the return of each species of whale since the banning of commercial operations in the 1980s.