Gospel Chapel Sculptures

The diptych Fall and Redemption, hanging in the Gospel Chapel, is a personal visualization of the two pivotal events in history—the fall and redemption. Each panel deals with a specific moment, almost as a photograph does, by presenting a temporal gesture as a permanent record. The fact that major elements in each panel were cast from models and are presented with little visible alteration reinforces the quality of faithfulness, reality and truth that we popularly associate with photography. However, the artist's primary concern has not been to literally recreate events, but to clarify relationships between the two events.

The core of the Christian story is Christ’s conscious, voluntary sacrifice—as a consequence of and in loving response to our voluntary but not so conscious rebellion. (Not so conscious in the sense that we never understand the full implication of our acts at the time.) The artist has tried to dramatize the relationship between rebellion and redemption by isolating gestures that are similar in form but radically different in meaning.
 
The hand is the instrument of choice, the way we externalize and fulfill our intentions. Thus, Eve’s hand starts to close around forbidden fruit in a grasp of willful self-gratification; Christ’s hand has been nailed open in empty, vulnerable self- surrender. Either act would be tragic in isolation. Together they explain the root cause and divine solution to the human dilemma.

Fall and Redemption was the first sculpture Ted Prescott made after becoming a Christian. He became a Christian at the end of his graduate study, and stopped making art for a period of seven years, as he mulled over the implications of the Christian faith and his own personal responsibility to the Lord. His motivation for making Fall and Redemption was a simple expression of gratitude to God for bringing him back to the visual arts.