Frustrated Writer

Mark Wallinger: Ecce Homo (1999 – 2000)

Here I stand amongst the great and the good

Joining an admiral, a general and a major

Overlooking our capital city. 

They in their worldly pomp

Me in a loin cloth and handcuffs.

A measure of how dangerous I’m considered to be?


I didn’t come down from my cross,
Will a 170 foot column be any better?
These messiahs aren’t to be trusted.
Filling men’s heads with dreams of freedom
And hope and change.
“Crucify“ is still the shout.

The establishment likes its power
Putting me up here keeps an eye on me.
The man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.
Still crying for lost Jerusalem.
I wonder what my fellow statues would say
If we could talk together?

We’re a commentary on power
And how to use it.
“The son of man came to seek and to save the lost”
No twelve gun salute for me.
Only a ride on a borrowed donkey.
And on to Calvary.