Art World
Gerry Judah’s World War I Memorial at St. Paul’s Cathedral Is Haunting and Beautiful
Sarah Cascone
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Two sculptures by Gerry Judah commemorating World War I have been installed in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, reports the BBC. The twin crosses by the artist, each 20 feet tall, dramatically flank the nave of the church.
Judah has linked the 100-year-old war to modern-day conflict by carefully embellishing each cross with tiny models of today’s war-torn cities and towns, recalling the ongoing struggle in places such as Afghanistan and Syria.
In an interview with the Telegraph, Judah explained that he hoped the memorial would “pose questions about what has continued to go wrong after that war.”
The conflict, which began with the assassination of the Austrian Archduke, was initially called the Great War. Those who believed that the world would not see a conflict of that magnitude ever again had their hopes dashed during the Second World War. Judah’s latest work reminds viewers that even a century later, the world has not achieved lasting peace.
This is not the first time the 62-year-old sculptor has been called upon to create work of this nature. In 2000, Judah made a sculpture of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the notorious Nazi concentration camp, commissioned by the Imperial War Museum in London.
St. Paul’s will officially unveil the memorial on April 13 during Palm Sunday services.
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