in edinburgh one of the highlights for me was david mach’s exhibition precious light. this is a project exploring the themes of the king james bible as part of the 400th year celebrations. david says he is not a christian but finds the themes of the bible resonate with today’s world in a way that he has loved exploring. he explores around 17 bible narratives with a mix of sculptures and collages spread through 5 floors of the exhibition. he has set up studio there and a team are working on a huge collage of the lord’s supper to be added in september (the exhibition runs until mid october). i came across david mach’s incredible scultpure of christ on the cross – die harder – at gloucester cathedral last year. in a similar vein he has created golgotha which is in the entrance to the exhibition and the only piece you are allowed to photograph – i have added a set here. it is a really powerful exhibition – do go if you possibly can. and the catalogue is incredibly well done – i had to buy it…

david’s approach seems to be to make his art from everyday stuff – coathangers, cut outs of magazines… and matches. he has been sculpting heads from matches for decades and they look amazing. for this exhibition he has done christ’s head and the devil. the devil looks particularly brilliant. at the start of the exhibition he set fire to the devil in what he describes as a creative act – creative in that it doesn’t destroy the piece but makes something else beautiful. he talks about it here on youtube and you can see the devil’s head being set alight. this created quite a controversy in the run up to the exhibition because his intention was also to burn christ’s head in what he sees as a creative act. i guess it’s unsurprising that it caused a stir. like a lot of these kinds of things it depends on how you read it but a burning effigy in the daily mail says one thing. a construction of christ that might stop us seeing other images of christ being burned to see beyond it is another. he may still burn or have burned christ’s head – i couldn’t catch the latest. pete rolins would love this as the ultimate act of pyrotheology perhaps?!