Cookie Cutter Christ
© 1991 Ginger Henry Geyer
porcelain with tinted slip
2" x 5 5/8" x 9 1/8"
Adapted from a French 11th c. marble relief, Christ in Majesty, from the Church of
Saint-Sernin, Toulouse
This is one of my earliest pieces, a pivotal one that vividly taught me the connection between art and spirit. My entrée into ceramics was from painting irregular plates that then began to take shape as bowls. A shape that has always intrigued me is the mandorla, an almond shape that was used in medieval art to signify divinity. A mandorla surrounds and contains the deity figure, so my intention here was to represent our tendency to "contain God" by carving a medieval Christ in Majesty in a mandorla bowl.
I cut out the basic shape of the figure, as if it were a sugar cookie and placed it into the damp clay bowl. I scratched details into the clay figure and wrapped it up. Days later I uncovered the bowl, ready to model the flat figure into the bowl. But it had cracked. Not only cracked, but curled up at the edges as if Jesus was coming out of the bowl. It was irreparable, and I felt my effort was wasted. Then suddenly, this came to mind:
Just before the bowl dried, I added that inscription and also these around the rim:
Cookie Cutter Christ
Sprinkled With Sugar
Reacts to Our Attempt to Wedge and Bake Him Into a Mandorla.
His body continues to break. After a recent shipment, the fingers were missing.