Now modernist church praises Cloned Jesus Christ

Every Tuesday, Kerknet explores a contemporary work of art or architecture. This week: Cloned Jesus Christ with pet bottles by William Sweetlove

120 cm tall is this Jesus, as tall as primordial man. Ostend artist William Sweetlove addresses the climate and drinking water issue with this work. He made Cloned Jesus Christ with pet bottles back in 2013 and exhibited it on the banks of the Durme in 2015. Today, it is on display at the Museum of Modern Religious Art in Koekelberg Basilica.

We see Christ as a fisherman, with PET bottles on his back and a sea turtle helping him find potable water. The latter, in fact, is an expanding global problem to which the artist wants to draw attention.

Ecology and concern for the climate have been an important source of inspiration for Sweetlove for years.

A member of the Cracking Art Group, he works with fossil materials that are non-biodegradable and immortalises his art. The bright colours of his work allude to the ominous future of a warming earth.

Cloned Jesus Christ with pet bottles interweaves ecology and Christian iconography. In the desert setting of the Bible, water already appeared vital, and in the encyclical Laudato si, the pope too calls for care for that fragile nature. Jesus as guardian of drinking water links up with the artist's ecological concern for the future of humans and the world.

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