Justice
2003
H: 153cms L: 612cms
Soil (from Gaza and East Jerusalem), sawdust, acrylic, glue on wooden construction
Quotation from Donald Soper, Lord Soper of Kingsway (1903-1998):
Peace is the fruit of justice and can grow on no other tree’
‘If only we could have peace,’ cry those who are merely inconvenienced by conflict. The crucial need for justice gets forgotten. This piece is an uncompromising ‘aide-memoire’: Justice is deliberately the only word from the specific quotation by Donald Soper that is used.
Embedded in the work is also a reminder of where justice is often absent—in land and settlement issues. Soil from representative parts of the planet where peace is a distant hope is present in this painting. It comes from Gaza and from Jerusalem; it might well have come from a depressingly long list of other places where destruction and the taking of life have become routine and seem to those involved to be the way to peace.