Knife Angel

The Knife Angel, a sculpture made from 100,000 blades of all sorts of different kinds that had been confiscated by or surrendered to the police, is currently touring the country to try and engage young people in discussions around the negative effects of violent behaviour. For the duration of March the sculpture is standing outside Guildford Cathedral.  

Although I had seen photographs I was keen to see it for myself and it was, indeed, an amazing experience to stand before it. The thing that struck me the most was the utter sadness and despair of the angel's face. It was quite affecting. I think Mr Flossmo was less emotional.

Apparently when the knives were delivered to the Ironwork Centre and Sculpture Park in Oswestry, where The Angel was fabricated, some still had traces of blood on them and all knives were sterilised and blunted before use in the sculpture. https://www.britishironworkcentre.co.uk/the-making-of-the-knife-angel/

After studying the sculpture I took a very quick visit into the Cathedral to see an exhibition of paintings of the Stations of the Cross by Iain McKillop. They were very beautiful but only added to the theme of man's inhumanity to man, which was quite depressing. Someone was playing the Cathedral organ beautifully and that all added to the atmosphere. I couldn't help but think back to my graduation ceremony 42 years ago which was held in the Cathedral - Surrey University being right next door and having an arrangement with the Cathedral to use the building for graduation ceremonies. I was thinking of my Dad, in his wheelchair, who was so proud of me. I had a lump in my throat.

After all that emotion, we had lunch in the Cathedral Cafe. It was very simple but very pleasant. After a quick foray to Tesco's we drove back to Farnham and had a quiet evening at home reading.