How do you feel about a little crucifixion? According to the Guardian, a life-size sculpture of Pete Doherty will be hung in St Marylebone parish church in London from February 20th to March 17th, as part of a temporary exhibition. Designed by art curator Ben Moore, the exhibition ‘Stations of the Cross’ will raise money for the Missing Tom Fund set up by Ben Moore as his brother Tom Moore has been missing since 2003.
The sculpture is impressive and will be suspended above the church aisle as well as other artworks by other artists, but let’s go back to this crucified Pete Doherty for a minute,… what about that? Artist Nick Reynold, who originally made the statue in 2008, declared in a statement: ’When I created this work I saw Pete being crucified by the media and that provided the basis of my inspiration to make this piece’,
Looking at the pictures published by the Guardian, Pete had to endure a full body plaster cast, and this has to be a weird experience, but above everything, shouldn’t crucifying a bad boy like Doherty be considered like a blasphemous thing? Especially when we are almost at Easter time. Looking at the comments on the Guardian website, I couldn’t believe the hateful comments, and I realized I knew very little about the Libertine guy. Obviously, he had a lot of drug problems but it goes way beyond that! He stole stuff, got arrested after an altercation, went in jail several times, got DUIs, and the list of his self-destructive behavior goes on and on, so how could this troublemaker possibly be taking the place of the Christ? Nevertheless, he has the benediction of Reverend Canon Stephen Evans who said that he hopes the statue ‘might help visitors to the exhibition stop and reflect not only Christ’s Passion and Resurrection and what this means but also to stop and reflect on what in their own lives leads to death or to life.’ Who knows, this statue may be a sort of redemption for Doherty.
