Artist's statement

As I grew older, I came into contact with more emotionally charged versions of Christ's Passion than the ones familiar to me from school and my local church. Especially significant to me were those single episodes such as Rubens's great Deposition and Titian's resonant image of the Entombment. 

It became my ambition to continue that tradition, by putting some of the emotive power of such images into a suite of works corresponding to the fourteen Stations of the Cross. I have been considering this ambition for many years; over the last five I have been actively producing drawings and sketches and now I feel ready to bring the project to fruition. 

The Stations of the Cross - the exhibition

A number of large drawings associated with Christ's Passion was shown at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. 

Ghislaine Howard's paintings are rooted in shared human experiences and have proved to communicate on a spiritual, emotional and intellectual level to a wide audience. 

Extension activities

The experience, organisational skills and ethos of both Liverpool Hope University College and Amnesty International ensure that a wide cross section of people were thoroughly engaged with this project. 

A series of events acted as a catalyst for the creative collaboration of students and others in the Merseyside area. The exhibitions at Canterbury and elsewhere took their message to a wider public. 

The project created an opportunity for those of religious and non-religious persuasions to come together in the contemplation of a sequence of works that was central to the millennium celebrations, that is firmly rooted within Christian belief and as such speaks out about concerns that are burning issues of today and for the future of our world society. 

It is hoped that this project will contribute towards the building of a better world for the new millennium through a modern visualisation of one of the central themes of Christianity. 

Amnesty International supported the project and, working in collaboration with Liverpool Hope University College, developed an  educational package based on the paintings and drawings for schools and young people. 

To accompany the educational package a photographic and textual travelling exhibition was developed based on the original work to allow a tour of smaller or more unusual venues such as churches, schools or village halls. 

The exhibition was accompanied by an illustrated publication containing a number of relevant essays. The publication is not only a catalogue for the exhibition but also an entity in its own right; one that can be used as an aid to meditation on the spiritual aspects of The Stations of the Cross and the more general issues the sequence suggests. 

Ghislaine Howard - a brief résumé

Selected exhibitions since 1993

Cynthia Corbett Gallery, London, Four Gallery Artists, June 1999

Horizons Modern Art, Brussels - solo exhibition, November 1998 

Discerning Eye, London - invited artist by critic Richard Kendall, London and Birkenhead, November 1998 

Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester - The Informal Portrait, participant in selected exhibition, November 1997-January 1998 

Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield - The Body Electric, solo exhibition, September 1997 

Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester - Bodies, participant in selected exhibition, September 1996-January 1997 

Anthony Hepworth - participant in selected exhibitions, April 1996 and September 1995 

Boundary Gallery - The Colour Blue, participant in selected exhibition, May 1995 

British Council, Manchester - Caught in the Act, solo exhibition, November 1994 

Warrington Art Gallery - Inside Out, solo exhibition alongside work from inmates of Risley Prison, February 1994 

Manchester City Art Gallery - A Shared Experience, solo exhibition, March-May 1993 

Selected Publications

The Stations of the Cross: The Captive Figure; exhibition catalogue and book edited by Michael Howard with contributions by Dr Joan Crossley and Shannon Ledbetter, published by Liverpool Hope University College in association with Amnesty International, 2000

Exhibiting Gender, Sarah Hyde, Courtauld Institute of Art, 1997 

A Shared Experience, exhibition catalogue by David Peters-Corbett, Manchester City Art Gallery, 1993 

Numerous review articles in The Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Women's Art Journal, Art Review, etc. 
 
 

Critical response

Ghislaine Howard's images "have great dignity and self possession, an intransigent presence which does justice to the gravity of the events depicted... One is witness to necessity and autonomy and immemorial repetition and endurance. There is something enduring, patient, reverent in the way (she) has conveyed these issues; a complex putting together of the monumental and the contingent." 

"So it is through Howard's moving embodiment of empathy that she really makes her individual mark. (Her works) could hardly have been painted by any male, at any time, anywhere." 

"Drawing colour and the signature of touch come together in these elemental paintings in works that could only have been made in the late twentieth century." 

"The work that Ghislaine Howard did at Maidstone Prison was powerful and dynamic; the inmates found her an inspiration to work with. Her energy touched the lives of those she worked with."