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Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson, The Name of God, 2007. Installation view at FACT.

The Name of God (2007)

The Name of God is a two-screen work in which people from the three main Abrahamic faiths (Christianity, Islam and Judaism) face a camera and write the name of their God using ordinary sparklers. The camera is fixed and the participants are filmed in sequence, taking turns to stand before the camera, light the sparkler and write in the air before them. The viewer witnesses the creation of the words in reverse form, framing the name of God as contingent upon an individual's perspective, and highlighting the personal and subjective nature of faith.

In employing light as the medium in which the participants write, notions of the ephemeral image are also conjured. The idea of a word that disappears and must be rewritten serves as a metaphor for an understanding of religious faith as an active state which requires continual affirmation from the believer.

Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson, The Name of God, 2007. Installation view at FACT.
Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson, The Name of God, 2007. Installation view at FACT.
Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson, The Name of God, 2007. Installation view at FACT.