Christ, The Symbol of Hope

This carving was made from one single mahogany log. It was commissioned by my brother. Rev. Richard Farmer, O.P. of Lagos, Nigeria. On one of his home visits, he selected from a mill pond in Louisiana a log which had originally come from Africa, and had it shipped to Omaha.

I did many studies of the Crucified Christ and wrote to various sculptors to send me a photo of their work. I also studied the Shroud of Turin and made many anatomical renditions of the human body.

In scale, my carving is almost to the human scale. I wanted the figure - although a crucified Christ - to be one of Hope by reaching forward and upward to anticipate the Resurrection and Ascension.

I took heavy equipment from Mainelli Construction Company to put the log in an upright position in a wide metal pan constructed for the occasion.

Figure of Christ, carved from a single African mahogany log. dimensions: 7ft. tall x 3 ft. wide x 1 ft. 6 in. thick. Used at St. Dominic's Church, Taba, Nigeria.

Into this pan, I put Polyglycol E000 and water so that, as the log dried out, it wouldn't check so much. For the better part of a year, I both carved and painted the Polyglycol on the figure.

Meanwhile, I made a scale model of the piece in plasticene - a scale of 2 inches to the foot. With this model I made a mold of rubber and a plaster mother mold from which I made several copies in bronze. (They are located in three different churches today where they are used in the Reconciliation Room or as processional crucifixes.)

Then I borrowed a chain saw and cut out the form from a profile view and a frontal view. After roughing the figure out with a chain saw, it took the better part of a year to complete the carving with wood gouges and mallet.

After the Corpus was completed, it was crated by my brother and sent to Nigeria where it was placed in several churches where my brother was assigned. Its present location is in a room adjacent to the New Basilica of St. Dominic in Yaba, just outside of Lagos, Nigeria. There was no place for it in the new Cathedral. It will be used in one of the new churches now awaiting construction.

In the plan of construction, the Corpus tilts away from the Cross at an angle. It depicts the Christ from theCross with the promise of the Resurrection and the Ascension. It hangs away from the Cross as a symbol of hope. Our hope.