The Congregation
St Marks Church, Woodhouse, Leeds.
Situation Leeds Art Festival 2007
As part of Situation Leeds 2007. A festival of art in public places, Steven Allbutt retraced a childhood journey to the fields of Verdun in Northern France. 91 years after the largest and longest battle in human History the Artist walked the lanes, tracks, fields and forests of Verdun collecting and photographing any shrapnel that he found still lying on the surface.
Upon returning to Leeds Steven Allbutt began to explore forms inspired by artillery and bullet shells. The artist recast some of the found metal into new bullet forms and then began to work on a site-specific installation for the disused Church of St Marks.
The Congregation is made up of 91 overblown representations of a first world war rifle bullet.