| Holy Roller reconfigures the rose window as a wheel of ecstatic belief—spinning through architecture, emotion, and cultural code. The title references a term once used to mock expressive worshippers in Holiness and Pentecostal traditions, later reclaimed as a symbol of spiritual intensity. Here, it becomes a metaphor for ritual motion, ecstatic repetition, and layered devotion.
The composition radiates outward in concentric rings. At the center, four green circles anchor the piece—suggesting balance, breath, or the four gospels. Surrounding them, the second ring in oranges and reds contains a series of unique crucifixes. Each one is distinct, multiplying the Passion of Christ into a visual litany of suffering and sacrifice. It’s not one crucifixion—it’s many. A devotional overload, where martyrdom becomes pattern.
The pink ring outside it fractures solemnity with a surreal blend: elevations of sacred architecture (cathedrals, mosques), children’s board games (Operation, Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, Life), and cartoon musicians and dancers. These elements collide in a symbolic remix—where spiritual aspiration, childhood ritual, and performative joy coexist. It’s not irreverent—it’s recombinant. A liturgy of play, praise, and architectural longing.
The outermost ring is composed of leafy shapes and four-leaf rosettes filled with cellular forms—organic structures that evoke morphogenesis, biological growth, and sacred geometry. These are not decorative—they are generative. They suggest that belief, like biology, evolves through repetition, mutation, and pattern.
Holy Roller enacts worship through visual rhythm. It suggests that belief, like biology, evolves through repetition, mutation, and ornamental logic. The work spins not to resolve, but to generate: a devotional centrifuge of image, emotion, and encoded growth.
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