Jamestown Road Baptist Church Art Exhibition 2025 - From The Secular to The Sacred

This installation consists of a series of glasses—half of which are filled with a white substance, the other half with a red substance—evoking the dual imagery of blood and bandages. The work engages with the symbolic weight of these colours: red as sacrifice, suffering, and atonement; white as healing, redemption, and restoration.

The recurring red-and-white motif aligns with broader themes in the artist’s biblically focused, Christ-centred works, offering a reflection on physical and spiritual restoration, wounds and their binding, sin and salvation. The separation of colours within the installation suggests both contrast and connection, an unresolved tension between injury and healing, loss and renewal.

A reflection on these themes can be found in Hebrews 9:22:

"Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins."

Here, the necessity of sacrifice for redemption is made clear—mirroring the visual and conceptual interplay within Blood and Bandages. The work becomes a meditation on human fragility, divine grace, and the ongoing process of healing and reconciliation through faith.

2024/25

Photographic Diptych

> "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
— Isaiah 1:18



In Spotless Lamb, Elayne Adamczyk Harrington positions herself at the centre of a visual meditation on sin, transformation, and endurance. The diptych presents two self-portraits, where the artist’s own body becomes the site of reflection—wearing garments that symbolise the burden of sin and the covering of grace. The work draws from Isaiah 1:18, exploring the permanence of sin, the possibility of redemption, and the Christian’s ongoing presence in the world despite being made new.

The first image, set in the natural surroundings of Iveagh Gardens, captures the artist clad in a red lagging jacket, a material commonly used for household insulation—abrasive, unsuitable for the body, a poor substitute for true covering. The crimson tones recall the deep stain of sin, much like the ancient dyes of scarlet and crimson, which were notoriously difficult to remove. Here, the shadow of a tree lingers in the frame, evoking the Tree of Knowledge, the first site of human transgression. The scene suggests the reality of sin: that it can exist even amid beauty, that one can be immersed in the splendour of nature and still be lost.

The second image, in stark contrast, relocates the artist to an urban environment—concrete, shutters, an industrial landscape. Now draped in white repurposed duvet lining, the artist embodies the verse’s promise: the transformation from red to white, from sin-stained to cleansed. This fabric, soft and sufficient, stands in contrast to the harshness of the lagging jacket. Yet, despite being made new, the setting reminds us that redemption does not remove the Christian from the world but repositions them within it. The cityscape becomes a metaphor for the reality of grace in the midst of brokenness, the call to remain among the impure, to extend love and witness.

The contrast between nature and the built environment, between plastic and wool, underscores the tension in Christian life—not simply a before-and-after, but an ongoing process of transformation, endurance, and purpose. Through her own physical presence in the work, Harrington does not merely depict these themes; she embodies them, making Spotless Lamb not just an artwork, but a lived testimony.

This work consists of a box frame displaying multiple pacifiers—readymades that have been recontextualised and, in some cases, reappropriated after burial as part of a performance titled Twice. This piece builds upon the previous reenactment of a happening, The Pledge, and its subsequent developments, Twice Shy and Calves Lick (2015).

Accompanying the framed display is a poster featuring a photograph of one of these pacifiers, adapted with text and attached to a key ring.
It explains that when the artist was five years old, she buried her soothers in an attempt to quit. Three days later, she dug multiple holes in the garden, searching for them. When she couldn’t find them, she turned to sucking her thumb.

Artist's note: from a young age, I believed in the power of abstinence. I was fascinated by the idea of renouncing things for extended periods—becoming vegetarian at seven, vegan at eleven, quitting sugar, salt, and other things in accordance with the Lenten calendar as a young Roman Catholic.

The work reflects on cycles of quitting and returning, the tension between discipline and desire, and the personal rituals that shape identity over time. Themes of recurrence, innocence, surrender, control, resolution, growth, and loss are embedded within the piece, questioning the endurance of abstinence and the ways in which early acts of renunciation echo throughout a lifetime.

This sculptural work consists of multiple S-hooks or meat hooks, hand-forged from aluminum round bar and spontaneously welded together. Individually, these hooks are sharp, utilitarian, and evoke connotations of capture, suspension, and force. Their form suggests danger and aggression—tools designed to pierce, to hold, to restrain. Yet, in their amalgamation, something shifts. Their individual potency is diminished; their sharpness is dulled by their collective entanglement. Together, they ascend—or descend—locked in an ambiguous state of motion. Their power in numbers is undeniable, yet their utility is rendered uncertain.

The work draws upon Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, a foundational text on critical education, group consciousness, and collective liberation. Freire challenges the notion of isolated individuals within oppressive systems, instead advocating for collaboration, dialogue, and mutual empowerment. In this sculpture, the hooks—once independent, disparate, and potentially harmful—find strength through their connection. Their unison suggests not only solidarity but also the tension between collective power and individual agency.

From a faith perspective, this transformation echoes the biblical metaphor of the body as a unified whole: "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body" (1 Corinthians 12:12). Just as each believer is called into communion, each hook, once an isolated implement of force, becomes part of something greater. The work speaks to the paradox of strength found in unity, where individual edges are softened, yet purpose is heightened through connection.

As part of this installation, a blackboard is presented as a reference to Miscellaneous, a live, ad libitum performance that utilised the artist’s body, voice, play, and engagement with a series of appropriated objects and sculptural works. The blackboard, a recurring element in her practice, aligns with her ongoing exploration of education, teaching, and learning. The fluid and unscripted nature of Miscellaneous made each iteration unique to its space and audience, navigating themes of restriction, oppression, judgement, and punishment—often within the context of the classroom.

While the work has roots in participatory art, no provision of chalk has been made for this installation. Unlike previous renditions, where interaction was encouraged, this absence impedes engagement, creating a barrier to self-expression. This subtle obstruction suggests a sense of exclusion or limitation, reflecting on the dynamics between students and teachers, hierarchy, and power within educational structures. The invitation to write remains, yet the means to do so are withheld—prompting a reflection on authority, access, and the conditions that shape participation.

Photographic triptych in black frame, measuring 1400 mm × 1000 mm. It features colour matte photographs of the artist’s father painting over a Trinity green chalkboard, an element from the installation Instrumental (2019). The images depict the father erasing lyrics from the song Awaken and other spontaneous writings made by the artist with industrial plasterboard chalk, linking themes of construction, destruction, resourcefulness, creativity, and the industrial aspect of education.

This work honours the artist’s father, an autodidactic musician, reflecting his enduring love of learning despite being driven away from formal education due to industry-related challenges, such as corporal punishment, abuse, and other systemic failings of his generation’s education system. These issues, which affected many men subjected to industrial schools and Christian Brothers institutions, underscore a broader critique of educational practices.

The act of erasing and renewing the chalkboard serves as a metaphor for generational healing and transformation.

The work draws direct inspiration from the 66th book of the Bible, Revelation 21:5-7 (KJV):

5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. 6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. 7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.