Fred’s Journey
Coventry, West Midlands England
The first target of the Luftwaffe’s Baedeker raids in the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940, this ancient Cathedral was visited by a number of chaplains after their arrival from New York in 1944. Totally destroyed, the ruins became an anteroom for entrance into the new Cathedral built in the 1950s, a moving illustration of England’s rise after the war to newness of life.
Artist’s Statement
- Armelle Le Roux
From
In 1940, a bombing raid destroyed the 15th century Coventry Cathedral. The ruined walls and spire are now a permanent memorial and entrance to the new cathedral, whose architect said, “The new Cathedral should grow from the old and be incomplete without it.”
In 2000, at a conference at Coventry about young minorities, I presented three McDonald project pieces. That event inspired me to create this window about reconciliation: the bombed cathedral from which rises the glorious stained glass of the new one. The shards in the empty bays remind us that once, and for centuries, the sun shone through them
Artist Information
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Armelle Le Roux
Atelier Le Roux
3246 Ettie Street
Studio 11 Oakland, CA 94608
Specifications
Number of shards: 9 Dimensions: 18¾” × 35¾” Medium: painted, stained, enameled, silk-screened, sandblasted and leaded plate glass
