Angels on high

An angelic trio is presiding over Christ Church Cathedral. CHRISTOPHER MOORE talks to the creative spirit behind the project.

Wings and gowns a' flutter, an angelic trio hovers above the heads of visitors and worshippers in Christ Church Cathedral.

Gabriel, Raphael and Michael seem to have swept in through the cathedral's west door to preside over the city's Christmas celebrations. Suspended from the cathedral's massive matai and totara roof, 18 metres above the nave floor, these monumental figures appear weightless and disconcertingly real; a heavenly manifestation of Christmas.

Eighteen months ago, Canadian-born New Zealand artist Caroline Trevella was approached by the Dean of Christchurch, the Very Rev Peter Beck and cathedral authorities to create the figures.

Trevella, the woman behind the firm Bizzart, has created three-dimensional fibreglass sculptures, puppets, displays, animatronics and animated Christmas windows for a series of national and international clients.

But the cathedral project, funded through a grant from the Perry Foundation, was too hard to resist, and the woman for whom angels are a "passion", and her daughter, Carly, happily succumbed to temptation.

Archangels are found in a number of religious traditions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam. While Michael and Gabriel are named in the Bible, Raphael appears in Apochrya's Book of Tobit. The three archangels are venerated as saints in the Catholic Church.

Traditionally, Gabriel, the angel of the Annunciation, is associated with carrying messages from God, Michael defends the world against evil, while Raphael brings healing and consolation.

"We decided that they should deliberately appear androgynous. My specialty is faces, while Carly is especially good with wings and gowns. We eventually settled on 2.5-metre-tall figures with a three-metre wingspan. Their gowns would make them appear larger when viewed from below," Trevella says.

Caroline and Carly Trevella first researched the tradition of archangels and their role in art by studying paintings and sculptures. They eventually decided to inject the figures with the spirit of the Renaissance, peaceful yet joyous and ecstatic.

"Someone once asked Samuel Wilberforce, who was Bishop of Oxford, why angels in stained-glass windows were always depicted as women or young, beardless men. Wilberforce stroked his chin for a while, deep in thought. Then he replied, 'Well, women get into heaven automatically. Men only make it by a close shave,' " says Rev Lynda Patterson, Christ Church Cathedral's theologian-in-residence.

"They're there to remind us of the place of angels at Christmas, and for kids visiting the Christmas tree to look out for, but they do more as well. They're a challenge for us to wake up, to be transformed by the presence of God and to become dangerously different."

With help and advice from retired engineers Harry Devonish and Grant Loader, Trevella constructed individual welded steel frames, over which the fibreglass figures were moulded.

Working alone in her studio throughout the long winter months, Trevella often found herself talking to her angels.

"You have to talk to somebody during a job like this," she says.

Finally, the day arrived to hoist the trio upwards on braided steel wires. Trevella had previously been elevated by cherrypicker to where they would hang, but confesses to nerves as she watched her figures slowly ascending high above the church floor.

"It was an amazing project and they look absolutely marvellous," Trevella says.

Cathedrals have always been places where imagery exists in abundance, according to a cathedral spokesperson.

"Windows, walls, even the floors depict stories of the faithful and present familiar narratives from the scriptures.

"Cathedrals functioned in this way, presenting visual sermons since their beginnings. That tradition now continues in a striking and rather unusual way in Christ Church Cathedral."

While Michael, Gabriel and Raphael have attracted public attention, the final and best word goes to a recent young visitor.

"I didn't know that they had real angels here."

Christchurch's archangels will hover over the nave in Christ Church Cathedral until early January. They will then appear annually each Advent and Christmas.

- © Fairfax NZ News