Commuters forced to ponder the inscrutable workings of London Underground’s Circle Line were this week offered a new diversion.
An anonymous artist has designed a pamphlet depicting the 14 Stations of the Cross and has arranged them so they sit alongside stations of the Tube line.
“Jesus is Condemned to Death” occurs at Westminster and St James Park, and “Jesus Falls For the Second Time” at Monument and Notting Hill Gate.
The skilful and intriguing paper-cut illustrations are collected in a pamphlet called Stations of the King’s Cross.
The pictures will be exhibited in St Mary’s Church, Somers Town, in north London.
The artist, who wanted to be anonymous, said he had been handing the pamphlets out around London.
He said: “It would be great if the wonder of the human imagination was acknowledged and encouraged more within the Church. Read the letter of His Holiness Pope John Paul II to Artists [1999]. He has such clear ideas about the importance of art to human society. [As he says] ‘The human craftsman mirrors the image of God as Creator’.”
In the pamphlet, the pictures are called “just a little idea for those Circle Line passengers who believe that pondering on the enormous mystery of Christ’s death [and mysterious enormity of His love] could be a good thing”.
The images bring to mind the fashionable paper-cuts of artists like Rob Ryan, who set up a residency at Somerset House in 2010.
The artist, however, said that a series of Jianzhi pandas, given to him by his mother when he was eight, was his inspiration.