Feather on the Breath of God

In 2000 Clucas was studying for a four-year Visual Art degree. Her exhibition that year was based on a narrative linked to Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th-century Abbess, who wrote of a vision she had of a king sitting on his throne. Around him stood great and wonderfully beautiful columns ornamented with ivory, bearing the banners of the king with great honour. Then it pleased the king to raise a small feather from the ground, and he commanded it to fly. And it did, but not of its own volition.

Thus am I
A feather on the breath of God.

This formed the basis of the exhibition. A five-foot acrylic tube with holes drilled into the top sat in a wooden box containing a fan and a light — symbolic of God and the Holy Spirit — and a feather, representing a life in God. Each journey of the feather up the tube was different, like each individual person. The feather has become a recurring symbol for Clucas, including in her present work on Interior Pilgrimage.