Tracing ancestry in wood

In an increasingly rootless society the urge to know who we are and where we come from is fast becoming a national obsession. Sally Jarman talks to sculptor Robert Koenig about his exhibition exploring the journey of life, and about the deep emotions it has evoked for him personally and for many others who have viewed it.

Far from being surrounded with generations of family, as we might have in years gone by, the majority of us are now distanced from relatives by time and location, forging our identities and lives in a world of strangers.

'Odyssey, a sacred journey' by sculptor Robert Koenig embodies the concept of displaced lives and the (often unrecognised) longing of many of us to reconnect with our roots.

A series of roughly hewn wooden people, each a towering 2.5m tall, the exhibition has evolved as it has travelled during the last two years from the steps of the Cathedral of St Jura in Lwow, the Ukraine, through the fields and mountains of Southern Poland, to churches and Cathedrals around Great Britain including, this summer, Christ the Cornerstone in central Milton Keynes.

The initial 16 figures, carved from Lime trees growing in and around the village in Poland where Robert's mother grew up, have been joined by others carved from trees local to areas visited: like pilgrims joining the exploration into their past.

Their elongated height, with arms pinned by their sides, are designed to look as if they had sprung from the very land on which they had lived. And, though none represent a specific person, they have grown from Robert's imagination as an organic interpretation of how he imagines his ancestors would have looked.

Robert says the work has been a wonderful and painful journey, for him personally and also for some of the thousands of people who have visited the exhibition.

His inspiration was his own experience as the only child of Polish immigrants, living in Stockport, Manchester.

'We were an isolated unit,' he explains. 'I didn't see a single relative until we went back to my mother's village in Poland when I was 20 years old and I discovered this community of cousins and aunts and uncles who all knew everything about each other.'

He also discovered in subsequent visits that his mother had sacrificed her youth to save others in her family by taking their place in the German labour camps in 1942. He found that she had arrived years later as a refugee in Stockport, Manchester with nothing and had to set about building a new life a world away from her family.

After her death two years ago he felt ready to confront his feelings about family history, tradition and above all, belonging. It is a subject that has evoked an huge response from some of those who have explored the exhibition, he says: 'Something about the hands, and the wood draws something out of
people. It's not art, it's about humanity and human issues and I've watched people hold the hand of one of the figures and stand lost in memories and thought.

'As I have toured with the exhibition people have told me harrowing stories about their experiences during the war and separation, for whatever reason, from loved ones. I feel very privileged though it has been emotionally quite draining at times.

Working on new figures for Milton Keynes, outside Christ the Cornerstone this summer, has been especially poignant for Robert, not least because it was here that the idea for the figures first came to him.

He says: 'Odyssey is about displacement of people from their heritage, and Milton Keynes as a new town has brought together so many people from so many different backgrounds who are making their lives here but whose history is elsewhere.

'I have great affection for the town and its people and feel a great affinity with the situations of many here,' he said.

Speaking at a special service to mark the close of the exhibition, minister David Moore who had organised the event echoed Robert's thoughts: 'Odyssey came at the time when we as a [ecumenical] congregation were looking for ways to express our vision of being a place of welcome and reconciliation ­a place of shared history, journey and hope.'

And he acknowledged that Odyssey had reached far out into the community and deep into the heart of the church.

For Robert, a practising Roman Catholic, Odyssey has always been a spiritual rather than artistic endeavour, hence the choice of churches and Cathedrals as venues.

'It has been a serious spiritual journey for me and the things I have learned have challenged my perception and understanding of faith. It has put into context the interweaving effects of history, politics and faith in
communities and the real place of churchgoing in our lives. Does going to church make us fundamentally better people or is it something that we do ritually with little influence on our wider actions?'

Although he doesn't expect the exhibition to ask quite the same questions of visitors he hopes that it has encouraged people to 'delve under the surface'.

The Milton Keynes figures will be joining their fellow pilgrims at further churches and Cathedrals around the UK this year and next, including Salisbury and York.

Photographs courtesy of The News, Portsmouth