Holy Trinity – outdoor installation by Miriam McConnon – 2025
Miriam McConnon’s outdoor installation ‘Holy Trinity’ presents three sets of large rosary beads ( 7 metres high ), each representative of a female figure of religious worship associated with the historical site of Fabrica Hill in Paphos, Cyprus. The three female figures of worship are Aphrodite, Demetra and Holy Mary.
Taking inspiration from the archeological finding at the site of Fabrica Hill of a small beaded bracelet with a cross, Miriam has constructed three sets of rosary beads from wire and white soap. Each set contains 5 decades of the rosary, a catholic ritual of prayer which references her own childhood growing up in an oppressive era of Catholicism in Ireland.
The three rosary beads are identical except for a small fragment of fabric which is inlayed into each bar of soap. These pieces of fabric associate each rosary bead with a particular female figure of worship. The use of soap in the artwork hints at the ritual of purifying and cleansing the body of sin using water in pre-Christian and Christian rituals. The white soap also exposes the demand for absolute purity from the Christian figure of Holy Mary in contrast to the more natural and human representation of Aphrodite and Demetra in ancient worship.
The installation was part of the Aqua Memoria project, coordinated by ExArtis, Paphos and curated by Catherine Louis Nikitas. The project was funded by the Cypriot department of antiquities and the Cypriot Ministry for culture.
