Observations on Giant StatuesAuthor(s): Joseph ClarkeSource: Log, No. 7 (Winter/Spring 2006), p. 110Published by: Anyone CorporationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41765092 .

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Observations on Giant Statues

Somewhere between Cincinnati and Dqyton, along a sparsely settled stretch of Interstate 7 an enormous bust of Jesus rises from a

reflecting pool to mark the location of Solid Rock Church, home of one of Greater Cincinnati's largest evangelical congregations . At 62 feet tall, the Styrofoam and fiberglass statue is purportedly the

largest likeness of Jesus in the US, and possibly the world. Some locals see it as Ohio's answer to Notre Dame University's "touch- down Jesus" mural, which overlooks the football stadium. Others

regard it simply ** red-state kitsch, and call it "Super Savior." Historically, larger-than-life honorific statues have been

potent icons of the civilizations that built them, from Ramses II in Ancient Egypt to the giant, recently toppled Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad. These monuments were grounded in a specific urban locus as an emblem of a culture's shared values. The Ohio Jesus is a burlesque of the civic (¿and religious ) monument. Experienced from the freeway, its size does not reflect a common cultural reso- nance, but rather serves a megachurch that competes for attention with nearbj billboards for the Trader's World flea market and Bristol's strip club. Are the raised hands a gesture of benediction, or are thçy a plea to be noticed ?

According to Luke's account, the risen Jesus appears to two of his disciples on a highway. He talks to them and travels with them, but prevents them from recognizing him. By contrast, this Jesus makes no secret of his ostensible identity - heis all image - but in the çyes of 65-mph drivers on the modern highway, he is no less a

stranger. - Joseph Clarke

no

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