The dates of my recent visit to Sydney Australia happened to coincide with the World Youth Day 2008. As an atheist, I had never heard of WYD SYD 08 but leaving the hotel it was hard to miss with road closures, police, barricades and 125,000-250,000 pilgrims in the city.
Numerous events were held in conjunction with WYD, one which was JesusWalks. In a nutshell, 33 artists were given a statute of The Sacred Heart of Jesus and asked show a contemporary view on “faith”. Each statute was on public display for the dates of the WYD and then will be put up for auction later in the year. The proceeds of the auction will benefit Youth Off The Streets, an Australian youth charity.
During my wanderings I was lucky enough to have detailed discussions with two of the artists involved in JesusWalks.
Peace in Surrender is by Sam Evans an Adelaide based self taught aerosol artist.
Sam being interviewed by ABC radio.
For obvious reasons the work is informally known as Camo Jesus.
The original work had Band-Aids over the stigmata but pilgrims would peel them off. A few of the statues were defaced during the week.
Either through good planning or luck, the work was placed in an area that was in shade for most of the day and had tree canopy backgrounds on two sides.
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