New art film highlights queer saints, Sebastian and homophobic violence for All Saints Day

Tony O'Connell prepares to kiss St Sebastian in his new film

Prayers to queer saints and a re-enactment of Saint Sebastian’s martyrdom make a strong statement against homophobic violence in a new short film for All Saints Day by queer British artist Tony O’Connell.

He sculpted a life-size statue of Sebastian and filmed his dramatic interactions with the figure, who is widely recognized as the patron saint of homosexuality.

The 12-minute video film of his performance art premieres today for All Saints Day at a private viewing in Liverpool and also on YouTube. The multimedia event includes an art exhibit of the Sebastian statue and related “relics” -- small sculptural assemblages fashioned by O’Connell from props in the film.



O’Connell’s script can serve as a model prayer for people of faith, while sharply criticizing church leaders who incite violence against LGBTQ people. He calls upon Sebastian “not to punish but only to humble those who dedicate themselves to oppression and evil,” listing more than a dozen of them by name.

Then he invites Sebastian to “be glorified with the host of our own queer saints,” who are also named. They include a wide variety of LGBTQ leaders and martyrs throughout history as well as traditional saints who broke gender taboos.

The text is reprinted below in full with O’Connell’s permission.

Sebastian was an early Christian martyr who was shot with arrows and executed in 288 on orders from the Roman emperor. In addition to his longstanding but unofficial status as patron saint of gay men, he is known as a protector against plague and a patron saint of soldiers, archers and athletes.

Hinting at a love-hate relationship and the complexity of the queer spiritual path, O’Connell plays three different roles in the film: A priest who kisses Sebastian on the lips and then spits on the ground. The police executioner who strips Sebastian and shoots arrows into his chest. A queer activist/devotee who honors the martyr with prayers and offerings.

The action occurs in the Bridewell, a former police station that has been converted to art studios in Liverpool. The film is titled “Sancte Sebastian ora pro nobis.” The Latin words mean “Saint Sebastian, pray for us,” a phrase that recurs many times in O’Connell’s voice-over narration.

St Sebastian is martyred by arrows in O'Connell's film

This is O’Connell’s first film, but he has spent years creating art on themes of queer sainthood, democratizing sacredness, and reclaiming the holiness in ordinary life, especially in LGBT experience, His ongoing series include pilgrimages to LGBT historical sites and photos of people with haloes formed by round objects from daily life.

The new film weaves together aspects of O’Connell’s own queer and religious background. He was raised in the Roman Catholic church, but has been a practicing Buddhist since 1995. While playing a priest in the film, he spreads smoky incense with a golden thurible like the one he remembers from his childhood stint as an altar boy. Later in the film he wears the 25-year-old T-shirt that he wore  during the early years of the radical British LGBT-rights group Outrage!

“I feel like making this sculpture has not only taken me back to my roots as a sculptor but allowed for genuine spiritual practice,” O’Connell told the Jesus in Love Blog. “I am careful never to work with unwashed hands or not to start touching him before I have made incense offerings to him.”

Filming finished in late October, but the project is far from done. For today’s premiere, O’Connell transformed his Sebastian sculpture by filling him with fragrant oils so he smells like roses, covering his face with gold leaf and building him a halo to indicate that he is now a saint.

Later Sebastian may be reincarnated as a Buddha. “After he has been Saint Sebastian it is possible he will be broken down and reused to build a seated Buddha Shakyamuni for our Liverpool Centre,” O’Connell said. “It would be suitable for me to see becoming a Buddha as a symbol for spiritual evolution -- or even a reward for martyrdom.”

O’Connell worked with many camera people on the film. They include another Liverpool queer artist, Colin Cairns, who is exhibiting his art about pagan deities at the premiere today. Others on the camera crew include Claire Martin, Heather Snow Gum, Kelsang Tenwang, Damian Cruikshank (who also shot O’Connell’s Alan Turing pilgrimage), Dave Elis and Fiona Filby.



Sancte Sebastian ora pro nobis
By Tony O’Connell

Welcoming the saint when others do not
 
Saint Sebastian, Glorious martyr, I invite you and welcome you to this space. Please bless us with your presence. My father was born in your parish and I knew you from childhood. Now it seems images of your sacrifice are no longer in currency in church shops. Statues, rupas and paintings of you are disappearing. Our Poets and artists have always adored you. Perhaps your association with us has led to removal. If this is true and others turn away from you, know that I do not and we do not, therefore I offer you this litany in celebration and remembrance.


Offerings to the saint and prostrations at his lotus feet

Saint Sebastian, Pray for us.

Invincible Martyr, Pray for us.

Knight, noble by birth and fame, Pray for us.

Glorious warrior and martyr of Christ, Pray for us.

Patron and mirror of soldiers, Pray for us.

Despiser of the world, Pray for us.

Conqueror of Satan, Pray for us.

Comfort of the dying, Pray for us.

Consoler of the afflicted, Pray for us.

Announcer of the truth, Pray for us.

St. Sebastian, perfect in virtue and wisdom, Pray for us.

St. Sebastian, mighty in word and work, Pray for us.

St. Sebastian, who strengthens the persecuted Pray for us.

St. Sebastian, who by example gives courage to the down-trodden Pray for us.

St. Sebastian, empowered to avert pestilence and contagious diseases, Pray for us.

St. Sebastian empowered to protect from plague and AIDS, Pray for us

St. Sebastian, surrounded by celestial light, Pray for us.

St. Sebastian, instructed by holy Angels, Pray for us.

St. Sebastian, giving speech to those without a voice, Pray for us.

St. Sebastian, lover of God and men, Pray for us.

St Sebastian, loved and then abandoned by the Roman Emperor, Pray for us.

St. Sebastian, loved and increasingly abandoned by the Roman Church, Pray for us

St. Sebastian, Loved by our people, Pray for us.

St. Sebastian, who, inflamed with love despised the pains inflicted by the tyrant, Pray for us.

St. Sebastian, unafraid of worldly authority or law, Pray for us.

St. Sebastian, unbowed by physical violence, Pray for us.

St. Sebastian, with the courage to defy your abusers, Pray for us.

St. Sebastian, who was wounded by arrows, Pray for us.

St. Sebastian, who was murdered with clubs, Pray for us.

St. Sebastian, who was crowned with eternal glory, Pray for us.


Protection by the saint from enemies

Glorious Martyr and undefeated warrior, we ask that you protect the persecuted from tyrants and enemies. Use your unstoppable energy not to punish but only to humble those who dedicate themselves to oppression and evil.

Please humble all members of Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church

Please Humble Anne Coulson, speaker of hate and supporter of the WBC

Please humble Grindr using Rev Matthew Makela, who drove Tyler Kish to consider suicide by saying “he was going to hell either way”

Please humble Westcity Bible Baptist Church pastor Logan Robertson who called a gay Christian author a "filthy child molesting fag".

Please humble hypocrite Clerk of Rowan County, Kim Davis

Please humble Steven Anderson, Baptist pastor in Arizona who called for the death of all gays.

Please humble televangelist Pat Robertson who has dedicated his life to poison and hate.

Please humble Pope Benedict and Pope Francis who failed our people beyond measure.

Please humble Hate preacher Scott Lively to stand trial for crimes against humanity

Please humble Pastor James David Manning, who’s homophobic sign oppresses the vulnerable

Please humble Hull vicar Melvin Tinker who compares homosexuality to paedophilia and adultery

Please humble Brian Brown of the National Organisation for Marriage who spread hate as far as Russia

Please humble Vitaly Milonov sponsor of legislation criminalizing "homosexual propaganda.” who dedicates his life to hate.

Please humble Ugandan Dictator, Yoweri Museveni, whose law condemns homosexuals to life imprisonment.

And causing these enemies to fall from public grace, allow them the shame to recognise the harm they have caused and repent it.


Litany of the Queer Saints

Seeing that your image seems increasingly sanitised from church shops but knowing that we have not forgotten your name, we invite you and welcome you to sit and be glorified with the host of our own queer saints. Take your place with the brave, the gentle and the fierce to be honoured for ever and ever in knowing that we have never abandoned you.

Saint Derek Jarman of Dungeness, hero, artist, Disciple of St Sebastian, martyred by deliberate lack of funding into HIV, Pray for us.

Saint Peter Tatchel, fierce protector of the west, unbowed in the face of violence and hate, Pray for us.

Saint Nikolay Alexeyev, fierce protector of the East, resistant to tyranny, Pray for us.

Saint Uncumber, gender defiant bearded lady, patron of purity and refusal, Pray for us.

Saint Joan of Arc, Fearless warrior and gender-queer martyr, Pray for us.

Saints Boris and Saint George of Russia united in love and death, Pray for us.

Saint Sergius and Saint Bachus united in love and death, Pray for us.

Saints Perpetua and Saint Felicity: Patron saints of same-sex couples, Pray for us

Saint Aderonke Apata, protector of Nigeria, courageous in the face of humiliation and violence, Pray for us.

Saint Mark Ashton LGSM, hero of solidarity with the miners, Pray for us.

Saint David Kato: Ugandan activist and resilient martyr, Pray for us.

Saint Matthew Shepard, crucified by hateful men, young forever, Pray for us.

Saint Mychal Judge, Fire-brigade chaplain and First martyr of 9/11, ordained but un-canonised by the church on account of your queer spirit, Pray for us.

Saint Alan Turing, who ended war, saved millions and changed the world- martyred by the judiciary, Pray for us.

Saint Oscar Wilde, our saint of humour, grace and elegance, whose gentle hands were put to hard labour, Pray for us.

Saint Harvey Milk, courageous and compassionate, mayor and martyr of San Francisco, Pray for us.

Holy Innocents of the Nazi death camps, Pray for us.

Holy Innocents martyred by ISIS, Pray for us.

Holy Innocents driven to death by the church, Pray for us.

Daughters of Stonewall, Pray for us.

Martyrs of the Upstairs Lounge, Pray for us.

Saint Leelah Alcorn, our sister who walked into the oncoming tide for the benefit of others, Pray for us.

Saint Sebastian we prostrate to you and thank you. Empowered by the benison of your protection we go forward with courage and grace to face the arrows of oppressors and tyrants, and to defeat them.

Amen

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Related link:

Why we need LGBT saints by Kittredge Cherry

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This post is part of the Artists series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series profiles artists who use lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and queer spiritual and religious imagery. It also highlights great queer artists from history, with an emphasis on their spiritual lives.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/
Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts

Holocaust Remembrance: We all wear the triangle

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Holocaust Remembrance: We all wear the triangle

A gay priest killed in the Holocaust appears in the icon
"Holy Priest Anonymous one of Sachsenhausen"

By William Hart McNichols ©

International Holocaust Remembrance Day honors the victims of the Nazi era, including the estimated 5,000 to 60,000 sent to concentration camps for homosexuality. The United Nations set the date as Jan. 27 -- the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp.

Established by the UN in 2005, International Holocaust Remembrance Day recalls the state-sponsored extermination of 6 million Jews and 11 million others deemed inferior by the Nazis, including 2.5 million Poles and other Slavic peoples, Soviet prisoners of war, Gypsies and others not of the "Aryan race," the mentally ill, the disabled, LGBT people, and religious dissidents such as Jehovah's Witnesses and Catholics. Holocaust Remembrance Day aims to help prevent future genocides.

The date chosen is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp, by Soviet troop on Jan. 27, 1945.

Approximcately 100,000 men were arrested from 1933 and 1945 under Paragraph 175, the German law against homosexuality. They were imprisoned or sent to concentration camps. Only about 4,000 survived.

Artists who address LGBT deaths in the holocaust (or “homocaust”) include Tony O’Connell, Mary Button, William Hart McNichols, Richard Grune, John Bittinger Klomp and those who designed the world's dozens of memorials to LGBT Holocaust victims. Their art is featured here today.

The defeat of the Nazis brought liberation for most prisoners in the concentration camps, but some of those accused of homosexuality were re-imprisoned in post-war Germany based on evidence found by the Nazis.

The world's first LGBT Holocaust memorial was the Homomonument, opened in 1987 in the Netherlands. Queer British artist Tony O’Connell made a photo and video record of his prayers and offerings at the Homomonument in Amsterdam on Christmas Day 2014 as part of his contemporary performance art series of LGBT pilgrimages.

Holocaust Memorial Pilgrimage to Homomonument in Amsterdam by Tony O'Connell

O'Connell visits historical sites such as to the Harvey Milk Metro station in San Francisco, New York City's Stonewall Inn, and the Alan Turing Memorial Bench in Manchester. Democratizing the idea of sacredness and reclaiming the holiness in ordinary life, especially in LGBT experience, are major themes in O'Connell's work. Based in Liverpool, O’Connell was raised in the Roman Catholic church, but has been a practicing Buddhist since 1995. For more info about O’Connell’s art, see my previous post Codebreaker Alan Turing honored in queer pilgrimage by artist Tony O’Connell.

Persecution of LGBT people during the Holocaust is juxtaposed with Jesus falling under the weight of his cross in the image at the top of this post: Station 3 from “Stations of the Cross: The Struggle For LGBT Equality” by Mary Button. The painting features headshots of men who were arrested for homosexuality under Paragraph 175 of the German criminal code and sent to concentration camps between 1933 and 1945.

Jesus falls the first time and Nazis ban homosexual groups in Station 3 from “Stations of the Cross: The Struggle For LGBT Equality” by Mary Button, courtesy of Believe Out Loud

Using bold colors and collage, Button puts Jesus' suffering into a queer context by matching scenes from his journey to Golgotha with milestones from the last 100 years of LGBT history. For an overview of all 15 paintings in the LGBT Stations series, see my article LGBT Stations of the Cross shows struggle for equality.

Richard Grune, a Bauhuas-trained German artist sent to Nazi concentration camps for homosexuality, also saw a connection between Christ’s Passion and the suffering of people in the camps. After being imprisoned in Sachsenhausen and Flossenbürg, he created “Passion of the 20th Century,” a set of lithographs depicting the nightmare of life in the camps. Published in 1947, it is considered one of the most important visual records of the camps to appear in the immediate postwar years.

“Solidarity.” Richard Grune lithograph from a limited edition series “Passion des XX Jahrhunderts” (Passion of the 20th Century). Grune was prosecuted under Paragraph 175 and from 1937 until liberation in 1945 was incarcerated in concentration camps. In 1947 he produced a series of etchings detailing what he witnessed in the camps. Grune died in 1983. (Credit: Courtesy Schwules Museum, Berlin) (US Holocaust Museum)

Willem Ardondeus

A gay Dutch artist who died in the Holocaust was Willem Arondeus (Aug. 22, 1894 - July 1, 1943). He participated in the anti-Nazi resistance movement with openly lesbian cellist Frieda Belinfante and others. Arondeus was openly gay before World War II began and proudly asserted his queer identity in his last message before his execution: “Let it be known that homosexuals are not cowards.”  His life and art are featured in a YouTube video.

The Nazis also denounced and attacked lesbians, but usually less severely and less systematically than they persecuted male homosexuals. Their history is told online in the article Lesbians and the Third Reich at the US Holocaust Museum. Some lesbians claim the black triangle as their symbol. The Nazis imposed the black triangle on people who were sent to concentration camps for being “anti-social.”

Identification pictures of Henny Schermann, a shop assistant in Frankfurt am Main. In 1940 police arrested Henny, who was Jewish and a lesbian, and deported her to the Ravensbrueck concentration camp for women. She was killed in 1942. Ravensbrueck, Germany, 1941. (US Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives)

Nazis used the pink triangle to identify male prisoners sent to concentration camps for homosexuality. Originally intended as a badge of shame, the pink triangle has become a symbol of pride for the LGBT rights movement.

A recent painting on the theme is “Pink Triangle” by John Bittinger Klomp, a gay artist based in Florida.

“Pink Triangle” by John Bittinger Klomp, 2012

“The Pink Triangle was part of the system of triangles used by the Nazis during World War II to denote various peoples they deemed undesirable, and included Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses and homosexuals,” Klomp said. The painting is part of his “Gay Dictionary Series” on words and symbols related to being gay.

The pink triangle appears in a variety of monuments that have been built around the world to commemorate LBGT victims of the Nazi regime. In January 2014 Israel's first memorial for LGBT victims of the Holocaust was unveiled in Tel Aviv. Since 1984, more than 20 gay Holocaust memorials have been established in places ranging from San Francisco to Sydney, from Germany to Uruguay. Some are in the actual concentration camp sites, such as the plaque for gay victims in Dachau pictured below.

Plaque for gay victims at Dachau concentration camp by nilexuk

To see powerful photos of all the queer Holocaust memorials and read the stories behind them, visit:
http://andrejkoymasky.com/mem/holocaust/ho08.html

The logo for the Jesus in Love Blog also shows the face of Jesus in a pink triangle. He joins queer people in transforming suffering into power.

The last surviving man to wear the pink triangle in the concentration camps was Rudolf Brazda, who died in 2011 at age 98. His story is told in his obituary at the New York Times.

Another of those who wore the pink triangle was an anonymous 60-year-old gay priest, brutally beaten to death because he refused to stop praying at the concentration camp in Sachsenhausen, Germany. Eyewitness Heinz Heger reported that the murder was so brutal that “I felt I was witnessing the crucifixion of Christ in modern guise.”

The priest is honored in the icon at the top of this post, “Holy Priest Anonymous One of Sachsenhausen.” It was painted by Father William Hart McNichols, a New Mexico artist and Catholic priest who was rebuked by church leaders for making LGBT-affirming icons of unapproved saints. His Anonymous Priest of Sachsenhausen icon appears in his book “The Bride: Images of the Church,” which he co-authored with peace activist Daniel Berrigan.

Here is the beginning of his tragic story, as told by Heger in his book The Men With the Pink Triangle.

Toward the end of February, 1940, a priest arrived in our block, a man some 60 years of age, tall and with distinguished features. We later discovered that he came from Sudetenland, from an aristocratic German family.

He found the torment of the arrival procedure especially trying, particularly the long wait naked and barefoot outside the block. When his tonsure was discovered after the shower, the SS corporal in charge took up a razor and said "I'll go to work on this one myself, and extend his tonsure a bit." And he saved the priest's head with the razor, taking little trouble to avoid cutting the scalp. quite the contrary.

The priest returned to the day-room of our lock with his head cut open and blood streaming down. His face was ashen and his eyes stared uncomprehendingly into the distance. He sat down on a bench, folded his hands in his lap and said softly, more to himself than to anyone else: "And yet man is good, he is a creature of God!"

The book goes on to recount in heartbreaking detail how the Nazis tortured the priest, hurling anti-gay slurs and beating him to death. More excerpts are available at the Queering the Church Blog in a post titled The Priest With the Pink Triangle.

The award-winning 1979 play “Bent” by Martin Sherman helped increase awareness of Nazi persecution of gays, leading to more historical research and education. A film version of “Bent” was made in 1997 with an all-star British cast including Clive Owen, Mick Jagger and Jude Law. Its title comes from the European slang word “bent” used as a slur for homosexuals.

The 2000 documentary film “Paragraph 175” tells the stories of several gay men and one lesbian who were persecuted by the Nazis, including interviews with some of the last survivors.

In recent years new memoirs of gay Holocaust survivors have been published and queer theory has brought new understanding of the Gay Holocaust as not just atrocities, but also a system of social control. Valuable books include:

I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual: A Memoir of Nazi Terror by Pierre Seel (2011)

Lost Intimacies: Rethinking Homosexuality under National Socialism by William J. Spurlin (2008)

An Underground Life: Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi Berlin by Gad Beck (2000)

"The Hidden Holocaust?: Gay and Lesbian Persecution in Germany 1933-45” by Gunter Grau (1995)

The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals by Richard Plant (1988) -- first comprehensive book on the subject

“Homosexuality d Male Bonding in Pre-Nazi Germany: The Youth Movement, the Gay Movement, and Male Bonding Before Hitler’s Rise” by Hubert Kennedy (1992)

Josef Jaeger by Jere' M Fishback (young adult novel based partly on the life of Jürgen Ohlsen, Nazi propaganda film star who turned out to be gay)


International Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed here with the prayer “We All Wear the Triangle” by Steve Carson. It appears in the book “Equal Rites: Lesbian and Gay Worship, Ceremonies, and Celebrations.” Carson was ordained by Metropolitan Community Churches and served congregations in New York, Boston and San Francisco.
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One: We are in many ways a culture without memory. The Holocaust, a series of events that occurred just over a generation ago, changed the world forever. Yet by some the Holocaust is forgotten, or seen as irrelevant, or even viewed as something that never happened.

All: As people of faith, we refuse to forget. We refuse to participate in the erasing of history. As a community of faith, we decide to remember, as we hear the historical record from Europe a generation ago and reflect upon events in our own time. We dare to listen to the voices of the past, even as they echo today.

One: In this moment, we are all Jews wearing the yellow Star of David.

All: We are all homosexuals wearing the pink triangle.

One: We are all political activists wearing the red triangle.

All: We are all criminals wearing the green triangle.

One: We are all antisocials wearing the black triangle.

All: We are all Jehovah’s Witnesses wearing the purple triangle.

One: We are all emigrants wearing the blue triangle.

All: We are all gypsies wearing the brown triangle.

One: We are all undesirable, all extendable by the state.

…Leader: To God of both memory and hope, we pledge ourselves to be a people of resistance to the powers of death wherever they may appear, to honor the living and the dead, and to make with them our promise: Never again!

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Related links:

Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals 1933-45 (US Holocaust Museum)

Lesbians and the Third Reich (US Holocaust Museum)

Pink Triangle at the Legacy Walk

Persecution of Homosexuals in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust (Wikipedia)

Holocaust Memorial Day: The Nazi Bid to Exterminate Gay People by Peter Tatchell (Huffington Post)

Sachsenhausen (Counterlight’s Peculiars).

The Holocaust's Forgotten Victims: The 5 Million Non-Jewish People Killed By The Nazis by Louise Ridley (Huffington Post)

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This post is part of the LGBTQ Calendar series by Kittredge Cherry. The series celebrates religious and spiritual holidays, events in LGBTQ history, holy days, feast days, festivals, anniversaries, liturgical seasons and other occasions of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people of faith and our allies.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
Qspirit.net presents the Jesus in Love Blog on LGBTQ spirituality.

Codebreaker Alan Turing honored in queer pilgrimage by artist Tony O'Connell

"Seven Bowls of Water for the Saint" from “Pilgrimage to the Shrine of Alan Turing” by Tony O’Connell

Alan Turing is a gay icon, pioneering computer scientist and wartime British codebreaker who is honored as a saint in new artwork by queer artist Tony O’Connell.

The artist made a photographic record of his recent trip to the Alan Turing Memorial in Manchester, England -- an act that served simultaneously as pilgrimage, performance art and political statement.

Turing’s life story is also told in the new movie “The Imitation Game,” which opens in the US on Nov. 21. It stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the eccentric genius who broke many codes.

Democratizing the idea of sacredness and reclaiming the holiness in ordinary life, especially in LGBT experience, are major themes in O'Connell's work. Based in Liverpool, O’Connell was raised in the Roman Catholic church, but has been a practicing Buddhist since 1995.

“For me Alan Turing is so important because his work shortened World War II (some believe by between two and four years) and by doing so he caused millions of lives -- on both sides -- to be saved,” O’Connell told the Jesus in Love Blog. He added that Turing “laid the groundwork for the modern computer industry and even artificial intelligence.”

He decided to add Turing to ongoing series of LGBT pilgrimages. Previous pilgrimages took him to the Harvey Milk Metro station in San Francisco Metro and New York City's Stonewall Inn.

“For the LGBT community the nature of his death, that he was driven to suicide by the homophobic legislation of the period not only speaks of a profound lack of government gratitude for his work but also of an enshrined homophobia which perceives a personal consensual relationship as more important than the saving of so many thousands of lives and the advances thereof. It was for these reasons I felt this most recent pilgrimage had to be to the statue of him in Manchester to regard it as a holy place,” O’Connell said.

The Turing pilgrimage photos begin with the artist at a canal in Manchester. O'Connell removes his shoes to walk barefoot on the holy ground along the canal toward the Turing memorial.

"Walking on Holy Ground" by Tony O’Connell

The heart of the memorial is a life-sized sculpture of Turing. The bronze figure sits alone on a bench located between the local gay neighborhood and the University of Manchester, where he taught mathematics. It was sculpted by Glyn Hughes.

O’Connell puts his hands together in prayer as he greets the Turing statue. He communes with the saint in various ways, offering seven silver bowls of holy water at Turing’s feet. The artist cleanses the rainbow mosaic embedded in the pavement and bathes them with holy water. The ritual ends when O’Connell pours the water into the canal in the middle of the gay village. Photographer Damian Cruikshank recorded the whole journey.

"Prostrations to the Saint" by Tony O’Connell

"Offering the Water" by Tony O’Connell

"Bathing the Rainbow with Holy Water" by Tony O'Connell

"Daring to Sit Beside Him" by Tony O’Connell

"Adoring the Saint" by Tony O’Connell

“It has often been a theme in my work to reclaim religious imagery in a secular way to discuss LGBT issues, but this time it felt more spiritual than I would have expected,” O’Connell recalled.

After returning from the pilgrimage, he created an embossed foil icon titled “Saint Alan Turing Ora Pro Nobis.” The Latin phrase, which means “pray for us,” is repeated in the traditional Litany of the Saints.

“Saint Alan Turing Ora Pro Nobis” by Tony O’Connell

Plans are underway for an exhibition of the Turing image photos, but for now the images can be seen in an online photo album on O’Connell’s Facebook page:

O’Connell is also doing an ongoing series of photos of people with haloes formed by round objects from daily life, such as light fixtures, mirrors, windows, baskets, and the sun. “We do not need the permission of anyone else to see perfection in each other,” he explained.

Turing (June 23, 1912 - June 7, 1954) played a major role in winning World War II by breaking Germany’s complex Enigma code. He also broke the code against homosexuality. His wartime work was top secret, so nobody knew of his contributions when he was tried and convicted of homosexual acts in 1952. His security clearance was revoked and he was sentenced to “chemical castration” through hormone treatments.

Disgraced and forgotten, Turing committed suicide in 1954 at age 41. He has received a growing number of honors in the years since his death. The British government officially apologized in 2009 and the queen granted him as posthumous pardon in 2013.

The definitive biography of Turing is “Alan Turing: The Enigma” by Andrew Hodges. His life is also chronicled in the documentary file "Codebreaker." The first major motion picture to dramatize his story is "The Imitation Game," which is featured in the following video trailer.”



Turing is also depicted in the 1986 stage play "Breaking the Code" by Hugh Whitemore. Derek Jacobi as Turing took London and Broadway by storm, and later starred in the BBC / PBS television film version.

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Related links:

“Station 6: Gay Scientist Alan Turing Driven to Suicide” from “LGBT Stations of the Cross” by Mary Button
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For more art by Tony O’Connell on the Jesus in Love Blog, visit:

Tony O’Connell reclaims sainthood by finding holiness in LGBT people and places

Olympics: Spiritual art supports Russia’s LGBT rights struggle


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This post is part of the Artists series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series profiles artists who use lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and queer spiritual and religious imagery. It also highlights great queer artists from history, with an emphasis on their spiritual lives.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/
Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts

Reclaiming sainthood: Gay artist Tony O’Connell finds holiness in LGBT people and places

“Saint Ryan, Patron of Learning the Arts” by Tony O’Connell

British artist Tony O’Connell documents the sacred side of queer people and places. He takes photos of saintly moments among ordinary LGBT people and records his own pilgrimages to LGBT historical sites.

“My initial idea was an attempt to reclaim the idea of holiness as a gay artist,” O’Connell says. Based in Liverpool, he was raised in the Roman Catholic tradition, but has been a practicing Buddhist since 1995.

“The intention was to democratize the notion of sacredness and the process of canonization. We do not need the permission of anyone else to see perfection in each other,” he explains.

Since 1998 he has been photographing people with haloes formed by round objects from daily life: light fixtures, mirrors, windows, baskets, the sun -- and even life ring buoys. “The act of noticing the moment where a physical circle as a symbol of a halo was present is an artistic parallel to noticing those qualities in the real people themselves,” O’Connell says.

He started with portraits of himself with haloes, and then expanded to his partner and LGBT friends. Eventually he included straight allies and strangers as he took the halo concept to its logical conclusion. “The images are just examples of something that is present in them, in you, in me and in all,” he explains.

Religions traditionally use the halo to denote people of exceptional saintliness or perfection, implying that others are less worthy. “It strikes me as truer and more logical to recognize that every consciousness has the potential for some growth toward light, be that internal or external,” O’Connell says. “If only one could glimpse or even capture the fleeting instance of perfection, compassion and wisdom in ordinary experience which are easy to overlook. If such moments could be recorded on the snap-shot camera or the phone in the pocket, would anyone believe them?”

None of the saints in his photos have been recognized by the church yet. But O’Connell did convince famous LGBT activist Peter Tatchell to pose for a quick halo portrait after a lecture on the plight of LGBT people in Iraq.

LGBT rights activisit Peter Tatchell appears in “Saint Peter the Protector” by Tony O’Connell

In 2008 O’Connell began displaying the saint photos in churches and other small venues at exhibitions named “Perfectly Ordinary” and “Be in that Number.” Some churches complemented the images with Gregorian chants playing in the background and frankincense fragrance in the air.

O’Connell’s saint photos will be shown in America at the “Sacred Voices” exhibit at the Canton Museum of Art in Canton, Ohio from Dec. 5, 2013 to March 2, 2014. It features contemporary Christian, Jewish, and Muslim artists who are seeking to express their faith through their art.

“Prostrations at the Holy Places and Veneration to Our Martyrs (Stonewall Pilgrimage)” by Tony O’Connell shows the artist praying at the bar where the LGBT rights movement began.

Recently O’Connell began a new series on LGBT pilgrimages, which he does as performances recorded in photos. He travels to places of importance in LGBT history, treating the trip as a pilgrimage to the shrine of a saint. His first pilgrimage led to the San Francisco Metro station named after slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk. “The traditional Buddhist offerings for saints and Bodhisattvas are water, food, perfume, incense and flowers so I took them to his shrine and made prostrations,” O’Connell said.

Earlier this year he made a pilgrimage to New York City's Stonewall Inn, where rebellion against police harassment in 1969 launched the modern LGBT liberation movement. His next destination is Manchester, England. He plans to leave offerings on a memorial bench there dedicated Alan Turing, a gay computer scientist driven to suicide by attempts to “cure” his homosexuality.

In the future O’Connell plans to do icons as tributes to well known LGBT figures such as Milk, Turing and AIDS activist Larry Kramer.

The following images are selected from more than 200 saint photos taken by O’Connell. All of the saints in these pictures are openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. While the artist’s ultimate purpose is to show that sainthood is non-exclusive, the Jesus in Love Blog is highlighting only LGBT saints here in order to balance centuries of religious oppression against queer people.

“Saint Antoinette Who Comforts the Sorrowful and Gives Courage” by Tony O’Connell honors a caring friend. Saint Antoinette and her partner Saint Lindsay helped the artist through the grief of losing his mother.

“Liberated Being (Saint Tony Travels to the Land of the Free)” by Tony O’Connell is a self-portrait of the artist on the way to Ellis Island. He stands back-to-back with another liberated being in the distance: The Statue of Liberty.

“Saint Lindsay Filled with Joy by a Vision of the Rainbow Covenant with Heaven” by Tony O’Connell shows a friend who chose her own halo for this portrait on the waterfront in Liverpool.

“Saint Kevin and Saint Tony on the Feast of Sergius and Bacchus” by Tony O’Connell shows the artist on the right with his partner Kevin. It is one of his rare diptych images of paired saints. The double-halo composition echoes a 7th-century icon of Saints Sergius and Bacchus.

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This post is part of the Artists series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series profiles artists who use lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and queer spiritual and religious imagery.

Traditional and alternative saints, martyrs, mystics, prophets, witnesses, heroes, holy people, humanitarians, deities and religious figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) and queer people and our allies are covered in the GLBT Saints series by Kittredge Cherry.

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