Slave King

Monday, 14 February 2011

This is a series of images I've created for a new translation of the New Testament. Included are the cover, a set of interior icons, and typographic elements. In each case, Jesus Christ is the central theme of the illustration, with the underlying motif of "slave-king" embedded in each. The content of the books in the New Testament center around the idea that Christ is both god and man - an interplay of power and weakness, the spiritual and the physical. The illustrations seek to capture this duality. In the cover image, I was fascinated by the idea of creating a neo-religious icon. I presented the figure of Christ as the foot-washer from the Gospel of John in an iconic, perhaps heroic way, juxtaposed with the ideas of battle, servitude, and death. The icons represent key epithets used for Christ throughout the NT. Each has a corresponding typographic treatment.