Deborah Kelly, The Miracles, 2012, installation view, Counihan Gallery. Photo: Jangle Low, 2013

Deborah Kelly: The Miracles

The Holy Family of Mary, Joseph and Jesus as an idealised nuclear family of mother, father and child, contains within it a mass of contradictions and leaps of faith. This configuration formed by God, through the miraculous arrival of the Baby Jesus, has at the same time been disrupted by divine intervention, with Joseph the earthly father replaced by the transcendent Holy Father. As the Mother of Jesus, Mary is also the Mother of God, while at the same time being God's consort, impregnated by the Holy Spirit. Her husband has been usurped from his paternal and spousal role, an uncomfortable state of sexual affairs that is sidestepped, or perhaps complicated, by the virgin birth of Jesus and Mary’s immaculate conception, freeing her from the stain of original sin. This convoluted arrangement has nevertheless for centuries formed a prototype for the exemplary household, and continues to frame Christian conceptions and definitions of family and the role of women.

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