St Michael
I’ve just discovered Charles E Kempe’s stained glass. When you get it it goes from being boring church type stuff to a dramatic statement. I thought I’d see what happened if one of his windows moved. A lot. Kempe, an independently wealthy Victorian, wanted to be a preacher but struggled with a stammer. He created a stained glass firm instead, and his work found its way into hundreds of churches. He based his style on medieval gothic, but in his eyes, perfected. You can spot it a mile off — the armour, the haloes, and those peacock-coloured wings. In this video, I’ve focused on St Michael, complete with his usual companions: the dragon underfoot and the set of scales for justice. The idea wasn’t to update Kempe or make him modern, but simply to let the window fly for a moment. I think it emphasises the drama that Kempe would have sought.
St Catherine
St Catherine is a saint best known for the idea that she was to be killed for her beliefs on a spiked wheel. She appeared often in the stained glass of Charles E Kempe, a Victorian stained glass maker, because her story had a graphic quality, which helped the drama of the windows. Here I’ve tried to bring the dramatic incident when she confronts the wheel to life. In the real world, she probably didn’t exist, and while people were put to death tied to a static wheel so that the executioner could break bones more easily the spikes idea is just made up.
