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‘Message/Messenger’ contains a three metre-wide wooden dome veneered with candescent, burnished copper. Its surface is covered in Arabesques that curl towards the summit between roundels that read ‘guide us to the Straight Path’ (a verse from the Holy Quran). The dome has the proportions and colouring of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, the shrine at the heart of the Temple Mount, or Haram Al-Sharif, the site revered by followers of the three Abrahamic faiths. The dome is propped up by a hilal (crescent moon), so it resembles a trap. Attached to the hilal is a luxurious golden rope. The key to this installation, however, is hidden away beneath the hemispherical dome; a white dove. The precarious nature of the installation is intended to be unsettling and thrilling. The piece strains with its own physical potential. The hulking size of the dome positions the dove as not only the victim of this rudimentary trap but the bait. It is as if there is another target here: the viewer. The viewer is drawn in by the promise of peace and spiritual salvation, but when we least expect it – the leviathan of organised religion envelops the viewer and we can no longer see the light.

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