A PAINTING in the form of a crucifix is back in Liverpool for the first time in 25 years.
The work – entitled Victim, No Resurrection – was created by Liverpool artist Terry Duffy in the wake of the 1981 Toxteth riots.
It has now gone on show at Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral where it will remain until the end of June.
Duffy, who helped establish the Arena Studios in Liverpool and now has a London studio, created the work depicting what he saw was the “loss of hope and faith experienced by those who were victims of the riots”.
The piece is a complex one, with feet and legs in the lower section, an androgynous torso in the centre and a head forcing itself upwards “as though screaming” at the top.
The 14ft high work was painted in a cramped attic room in a semi-derelict building next door to the Philharmonic Pub in Hope Street, during a two-year period following the riots.
An occasional visitor to the studio was the late Bishop of Liverpool, David Sheppard.
“He was extremely concerned about the plight of the people at that time and how the church might help them,” says Duffy.
“We would discuss the painting in great depth as to its meaning and my observation that the victim being crucified was the person in the street with no hope.”
As a result of the painting, in 1984 Duffy received an Arts Council fellowship award.
