Angel

In Angel (1997), the artist figures as a blind man walking down an up escalator while reciting the first lines of the Gospel according to St John: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God…” Fusing the religious and social registers, Wallinger rehearses the metaphors of the parable of the blind leading the blind and of (failed) upward mobility. The absurd scene offers a Shakespearean vision of life, both ironic and comical.