00:00So we're here at St. Julian's Church in Shrewsbury, and we're with Aidan Hart, a very special artist.
00:07What is it you do, Aidan? I mean, you know, the clue is next to you.
00:11Yeah, that's right. Yeah, well, I make icons for churches. I'm Vatican, Catholic, and Orthodox churches.
00:17I'm a member of the Orthodox Church, and for us, icons are everywhere, because they're like a window between heaven and earth, a doorway.
00:23And I carve icons, do mosaic icons. But in this particular exhibition, I've curated it, and many other people have icons here as well.
00:33I've got probably a quarter of them, but Tamara from Bath, she has about 30, I think. Two of my students are here. I've done them as well.
00:43So how many people are there in this country doing this kind of work?
00:47Difficult to say. There are probably about 300 doing it, sort of like a pious hobby. Professionally, I know about 9 or 10, perhaps, who do it professionally.
00:57It's a long demand. I think in the Protestant Revolution, let's call it, under Henry Gates and Cromwell, our churches are sort of whitewashed, whereas most of our churches are full of imagery, full of colour.
01:09So now I think people are a bit fed up with this iconoclastic whiteness, and they really do want faces back again. They want faces back. They don't want to just play in front of a white wall.
01:19And eagle-eyed viewers will recognise you from a previous story we did, where you were working on the Greek church in Shrewsbury, and adding some of your artwork to there.
01:28That's right. Yes, I've done frescoes there. We actually have two churches now. We're growing so much that we're starting to use St. Julian's, which is a much larger church for Sunday services.
01:37Yeah. So the Orthodox Church in Otterley Road, up Otterley Road, we still use for our weekday services, but I frescoed that and made the icons scream, made the icons for that.
01:47So you're a local man? You're a Shrewsbury man?
01:49Yeah, I live in Shrewsbury. Yes, I was raised in New Zealand, you might notice my twang, but about the last 30 years I've been in Shropshire.
01:57So how did you, did you start off as an artist, but kind of non-religious? Is that always the path?
02:03Well, I was a devout Christian Anglican from about the age of 15, and I was a professional sculptor.
02:09So most of the work wasn't for churches, it was exhibitions, et cetera.
02:13And then in 1983, when I became a member of the Orthodox Church, I decided to concentrate on liturgical work.
02:20It's called Work for the Liturgy, Work for Worship.
02:22Yeah.
02:23And is there much of this kind of artwork being done in America?
02:26Oh, yes, yes. A lot of my students, in fact, come over from America.
02:31I teach a three-year part-time icon course here in Shrewsbury as part of the King's Foundation School of Traditional Arts.
02:38And of 12 people, I might have up to three who come over from America for that.
02:43Interesting. So talk us about this work here then.
02:46So what are we representing here, and talk us a little bit about kind of how you achieved this.
02:50Yes, so this is an icon of Christ.
02:52I painted for a hermitage. I used to live as a hermit up on the Stapestone Hills,
02:56and we stored a barn there and frescoed it, and this icon was painted for that.
03:01So this is Christ, the Pantocrator. He's blessing with his right hand,
03:05and the Gospels represent his life on earth and his death and resurrection.
03:10Interestingly, we notice that icons have a combination of joy and sadness.
03:15Obviously, life with Christ is full of joy, but also we feel compassion for the people suffering in the world.
03:20So you have this sort of combination of a gentle smile, but a bit of sadness,
03:25and he's really looking at us.
03:28Yeah.
03:28You really feel that God is looking at us.
03:31Now, Christ is God and man, and this earthy red here represents this humanity.
03:37Adam, the word Adam, the first created man, as it were, means earth.
03:42But the blue, obviously, is a heavenly colour.
03:44So this colour combination shows that Christ is fully God and fully man.
03:49In fact, this exhibition is to celebrate what's called the First Ecumenical Council,
03:54which happened 1,700 years ago,
03:57and that affirmed that Christ is fully God and fully man.
04:01And this whole festival we're putting on with the symposium,
04:04having a concert tomorrow night, and the Icon Exhibition,
04:07ought to commemorate this council.
04:09In fact, the creed, most churches say, I believe in God, the Father Almighty, etc.,
04:14was really written by this Council of Nicaea.
04:20And it's all to do with affirming that this man is also fully God.
04:24Talk to us about this piece behind you there, Aidan.
04:26Yes, a few months before the King's coronation,
04:29I was approached by him through his principal private secretary, Sir Clive Alderton,
04:34if I would like to design what's called the anointing screen
04:37that would go over him when he was being anointed as King.
04:41So I thought about it for a while, I said yes, that would be nice.
04:44Well, it's pressure though, isn't it?
04:47It'd be quite easy to say, you know what, I don't want to tell you that.
04:49Well, I'd done a lot of work for His Majesty before Icon Fisco's sculptures,
04:53so that was a real joy to say yes to this.
04:56So there was a stained glass window that already existed that is in the Royal Chapel,
05:03and that had the basic theme, not the design,
05:07but the theme of a tree with the names of the Commonwealth countries on,
05:12and two angels, so the King wanted me to base it on that theme.
05:16So I had to design something that was suitable for embroidery,
05:19I'd changed the dimensions quite a bit, I'd made it less wide,
05:23but this is the first design I did, which the King approved,
05:26and then names of the Commonwealth countries were put on the leaves.
05:30So I designed it and oversaw the making of it,
05:32and it was made by incredibly skilled technicians and roideries
05:36at the Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court Palace.
05:40So does that mean you're on first name terms now?
05:42You get invited round for a cup of tea and a biscuit with the King?
05:45Oh yeah, literally, yeah.
05:46I'd be a number for our tea and biscuits, if I'd read it.
05:48That's not bad, is it?
05:50So when you get a commission, do they kind of say,
05:54are they quite specific on what they want,
05:56or do you get a bit of an artistic interpretation?
06:00Normally they would say, we want this theme,
06:02it might be the enunciation,
06:03because they already know my work, basically,
06:05they generally let me get on with it.
06:07They trust you to do your thing.
06:08Yeah, but they do get some kind of hands-on people as well,
06:10and not often, but sometimes you've got to say,
06:13I know what results you wanted,
06:15but let me decide the best way of meeting that result.
06:18And they take it round.
06:20Well, it looks beautiful,
06:21and what an amazing exhibition and an amazing setting.
