A Kiss
is a clear evocation of the Kiss of Judas or Betrayal of Christ by Judas Iscariot in the Garden of Gethsemane
after the Last Supper.
Judas identifies Christ with a kiss, enabling the Roman authorities to arrest him: Luke 22:47-49: While he was still
speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached
Jesus to kiss him, but Jesus asked him, ‘Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?’
Matthew 26:48-50: Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: ‘The one I kiss is the man; arrest him.’
Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him. Jesus replied, ‘Do what you came for, friend.’
Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him.
The Question Mark Inside was commissioned by Dean and Chapter of St Paul's Cathedral as the first large-scale public
artwork in the cathedral's history. It marked the 300th anniversary of the topping-out of Sir Christopher Wren's
architectural masterpiece in 2008.
The work posed the simple question, 'What makes life meaningful and purposeful?' and invited responses from the
public during the anniversary year.
In addition, the artist investigated belief, non-belief and the politics of both positions in conversation
with the clery at St Paul's, novelist Howard Jacobson, humanist philosopher A C Grayling and columnist Caitlin Moran.
The resulting texts, from the domestic to the sexual to the sublime, were projected onto the exterior of the
cathedral dome, the West Front at Ludgate Hill, and the interior of the Whispering Gallery.