In Pictures: Great North Passion
- Published
BBC One is marking Easter with an ambitious live show from South Shields, South Tyneside, on Good Friday. A “pop-up cathedral” has been created from more than 50 shipping containers in Bents Park. Twelve containers have been given over to artists who have customised them with the help of local communities across the north-east of England.
Each of the artists' containers is supposed to tell a part of the Passion story, recounting Jesus Christ's arrest, trial, suffering and eventual death. The first was created by artist Richard Broderick with people from Fish Quay, North Shields, and transported to the park by boat.
Broderick has made a fishing boat called Truth to represent the first station of the cross, in which Jesus is condemned to death. The artist said he had been "collecting truths" from local people to incorporate into the work.
Each installation was created in a different location in the north-east before the container was transported to Bents Park. This, with the theme of exhaustion and being alone, was created at St Cuthbert’s Church, Red House, Sunderland.
Artist Mohammed "Aerosol" Ali, who uses street art to convey messages relating to different religions, also decorated the exterior.
John Prendergast (pictured) was among the residents of South Shields' Biddick Hall Estate who were photographed by artist Garry Hunter, who grew up on the estate. The participants were photographed with items demonstrating a personal passion, and the resulting photos are accompanied by passages along the themes of hope and faith.
Poet Kate Fox will perform a poem on the theme of kindness with pupils from South Shields Community School in front of their container.
Dancers will perform in front of the eleventh box, on the theme of forgiveness, which was decorated while stationed outside the Sage Gateshead.
Graffiti artists worked with young men who were not in education or employment as well as local schools and the congregation of St Edmunds, Gateshead, to create the mural.
The final part of the story marks Jesus' death on the cross. Sculptor Joseph Hiller asked people around Souter Lighthouse in South Tyneside to enact moments of loss and grief. Those poses were digitally captured and used to create this final steel sculpture.