Artist apes the crucifixion to save threatened gorillas

It's a crucifix in a church, but the cross bears the life-like body of a gorilla. Paul Fryer is likely to provoke protests with his work, The Privilege of Dominion, installed in the former Holy Trinity Church in Marylebone, London in a show inspired by the cabinets of curiosities popular in the 16th century.

The gorilla was made with the help of a former Madame Tussauds waxwork expert and a hair-inserter. "It does look real - even close up," Fryer said. He insists he wants to highlight the plight of the Western Lowland Gorillas, and to challenge the Christian notion that animals do not have souls. But he does not want to cause offence.



"I do go to church and regard myself as a Christian, though I'm probably a heretic," he said. "I just hope people understand the spirit of it is intended to create discourse and make people think rather than offend anybody."

If the gorilla does not offend, another of his works just might. In his contemporary version of a Pieta, a life-like black Christ is depicted in an electric chair. An earlier version, featuring a white Christ, provoked protests in the French town of Gap earlier this year.



Fryer, 44, who lives in Derbyshire but has a studio in Kent, said the piece challenged notions of race and religion. "If they had had the chair in Christ's time, people would be wearing little electric chairs now," Fryer said.

Joe La Placa, the curator, said the works were not blasphemous. "We're so acclimatised to the shock and horror of the Young British Artists that we're primed to look for the sensationalist aspect. But people find these works deeply moving."