‘Approbatio’ painted in its original typeface taken from a missal printed in 1855.
The use of the vacant, empty or discarded garment - shirt, sindon, gandoura - is clearly influenced by Frank Kermode’s speculations on Mark 14: 51/52 in “The Genesis of Secrecy” and similar ima- gery in Gnostic texts like ‘The Hymn of the Pearl’ and the ‘Song of the Apostle Judas Thomas.’ A simple image of a shirt, an im- print, an afterimage: a shadow but also a foreshadowing. The symbolism of the garment as a heavenly or ideal double of a per- son on earth. Clothes waiting to be filled, there is a sense of ab- sence. (Can you have an empty coat hanger?) The origins of this can be seen in an earlier work by the artist; “Lily King” shown at the gallery in the exhibition; “Section D’Or: Gilding the Lily” in 2004.