Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.When in 1923 Stanley Spencer painted his famous work The Resurrection, Cookham, he can little have suspected that it would one day be used to educate East End teenagers. Spencer presents a surreal view of his local parish church, in which the dead, wrapped in winding sheets, rise uncorrupted from the grave to greet the living on the pleasant summer's afternoon of the day of resurrection.
The picture is a tangible expression of the artist's faith and one of the most memorable images of 20th-century British art. It took Spencer four years to paint, but in a somewhat shorter time, the students of George Green School, Isle of Dogs, have transformed his vision into something quite different.
During their autumn term last year a small group of students from the school, whose GCSE year had been using the Tate's collection to gain a greater understanding of art and cultural identity, concentrated specifically on Spencer's picture. Using photomontage and computer technology, they created the extraordinary image currently on display at the Tate Gallery called Awakenings (left).
Now, in place of the Berkshire countryside, we have Docklands, complete with the Light Railway and the looming mass of Canary Wharf. The church has been replaced by the school and along its wall, in place of the chosen, sit a parade of popular heroes including Bob Marley, footballers and feminists. On an armchair in the pictorial centre, sits a man, presumably a master, cradling two of Spencer's self-portraits. And behind him, the ghost at the feast, is the brooding presence of the painter himself. What would he have made of it? And, more importantly, what did the students make of it? Whatever they gained, it was obviously a fascinating exercise and it makes a nice contrast with the cosy, confident 1920s calm of the original. Stanley must be turning in his grave.
'Awakenings' at the Tate Gallery, Millbank, SW1 (0171-887 8000) Opening hours, Mon-Sat 10am-5.50pm, Sun 2-5.50pm, free. Pimlico
Iain Gale
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments