Commendation from Chaplain of Christ’s College, the Revd Christopher Woods.

“Commissioning a new art work for a place of worship is an exciting yet daunting project. It demands preparation, planning and enthusiasm from many parties. The reredos, or altarpiece, which Tom de Freston has been working on for some time, in various guises, is a stark, dramatic and disturbing fruit of talent, passion and labour of love.

The implications of such a work are manifold and as so often with art, there are endless possibilities of meaning, interpretation and inspiration in the time during which the diptych is installed above the altar in Christ’s College Chapel. None of these will become apparent until after Easter Sunday 2011. From that point on, those who worship, pray, sit, read, sing, make music or visit this sacred space can engage with a new creation. A new dynamism and fresh expression of spirituality is made manifest with the installation of ‘Deposition and Resurrection’. There will be questions, there will be intrigue, there will be shock, there will be amazement. All of this is good and right and there is no better a place for such emotion to be borne out than in the house of God.

The theme of the paintings engages deeply with the roots and history of Christ’s: the College is dedicated to our Lord Jesus Christ and the custom of maintaining a ‘feast of title’ or ‘patronal festival’ is kept in this College on Easter Day itself – the Day of Resurrection. Of course, Deposition and Resurrection are closely entwined. And in this Chapel, we have had the great Caro sculpture of The Deposition in our midst for ten years. Now, in 2011 we have the de Freston altarpiece: new reflection for our time on the human reality of falling to the depths of despair, yet rising again abundantly to life and hope again.

Tom is to be thanked and praised for his graciousness, enthusiasm and above all his God-given talent.”