Saturday, June 09, 2007

Not stained glass

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For those of you who had seen my post on Corpus Christi, you might have thought that the Church of St. Anthony had some beautiful stained glass.

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Haha. Not so. This is a poor rural parish, so, such extravagance is out of the question. Instead, it settled on the next best thing, high quality prints of some other Church's stained glass stuck onto the wall.

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Fooled you eh?

What a brilliant idea, no? Thank you. I'm glad I thought of it. =) This idea made its début during the Penang Diocesan Golden Jubilee celebrations in the Penang International Sports Arena. I was among those entrusted with the design of the altar and decor and had the idea of making large prints of stained glass to give the arena a more Churchy feel.

Looks like it has made another appearance here, courtesy of Fr. Francis Xavier who was my parish priest during the Golden Jubilee celebrations. Don't like what's available on the stained glass market? Covet another parish's windows? Have no money? Well, now you know what to do.

The best part of it is, that the 'stained glass' can be changed with the feasts! Imagine that...

4 comments:

Archistrategos said...

That's a very clever way of decorating a church (and not to mention cheap)! It is rather reminiscent of the trompe l'eoil that was very popular in the 1800s.

Andrew said...

Haha...yes indeed! I also like the idea of changing the hanging to suit the liturgical season or feast.

The Hymn Selector said...

I like the middle panel showing St Anthony. Very nice. But not the side panels of Our Lady and the Good Shepherd which I think looks a tad too modern. You ought to give out further details on where to get these prints done.

Andrew said...

The side panels were done up by someone else long ago and are real glass panels. I think they're quite ugly actually, but hey... Perhaps removing them now would cause too much of a ruckus but in time? Who knows?

They can be done at a place called Banner King in Penang. Costs vary depending on the quality. But if the original picture quality is terrible anyway, then you might need to opt for a better quality print to compensate otherwise it will appear all blurry.

BTW, are you in Hong Kong? If you are, then do take some photos of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral.