In Mark Wallinger's video, 'Angel', everything is reversed. Wallinger's 'angel', in the form of a blind man, is transposed to the London Underground (Angel tube station). At the bottom of the escalator he intones the opening of St John's Gospel. The words were recorded spoken backwards and, although 'righted' in playback, they have the effect of speech which is not quite human. The blind man continually walks on the spot to avoid being propelled off the escalator, as though he is preaching to the world and making no progress. At the end he is abruptly swept backwards up the escalator to the sound of Handel's 'Zadok the Priest', as if ascending to heaven.
Wallinger seems to be commenting ironically on the nature of religion and the reflexivity of artistic communication: it is not so much the content of the Bible that is important as the way you tell it. This could also be regarded as a comment about the artifice of art.

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Longside Gallery
Yorkshire Sculpture Park

5 March - 18 April 2010
Open daily   11am - 4pm
Free admission