Jane Powers watches a team at work on a photographic re-enactment of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper.
Jesus and some of his apostles are gathered around - sipping tea, eating biscuits and smoking cigarettes. The conversation is nothing special, and ranges from Judas's gold cufflinks, to Rory Gallagher's guitar, to the use of electronic devices in music. The Apostle Simon prefers music to sound more organic, while Philip - just off the plane from Bogota, Colombia five days ago - is more concerned about the ring tone on a new mobile phone. And she (for Philip's real name is Diana) is getting plenty of help from the younger male apostles, who are not immune to her South American charms.
At the other end of the echoing room (the Church of St Michael and St John in Dublin), Matthew, wearing a brown silk yarmulke and blueberry bomber jacket, is at a long table with some (soda) bread, wine and fruits. He is, in reality, architecture student Alan, and he painstakingly maintains a dramatic pose, his body frozen with concentration. Artist John Byrne makes some adjustments to the folds in the bomber jacket while Audrey Doyle applies a dab of make-up to a potentially shiny cheek.
After a final check with spirit level and ruler, and a last look at an intricate chart drawn out by his wife, Laragh Pittman, John gives the okay to photographer Jonathan Hession. The camera clicks, and simultaneously five large studio lights flash, bathing the lone figure at the white-clothed table in a spilt-second of sheet lightning. Alan perseveres patiently in his Matthew persona while several more photos are taken, until finally, he is released from his duties, to return his outfit to Jean Cronin (who has put together many of the costumes) and to rejoin the other characters.
They have assembled here already two days this week, for rehearsals and camera tests. And today, they are here for the real thing: the photographing of John Byrne's 21st-century re-creation of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper - with an Irish twist. The red teapot and hunks of wholesome soda bread speak of comfortable, family food, while among the diners sharing them are a Catholic priest and an Orangeman, as well as a Jew, and possibly a Muslim or two. "I suppose the idea of sitting around a table could be a metaphor for positive politics," says John.
The 9.3 by 2.2 metre piece, which will be reproduced in vitreous enamel on steel panels, will be displayed on a wall above an al fresco dining area in Dublin's new street, Bloom's Lane - whose developer, Mick Wallace, commissioned the art work. The artist has paid a witty tribute (while also, perhaps, commenting on the modern religion of football) by draping a Juventus shirt over one of the chairs. The Italian soccer team is supported by his patron.
The photography is complicated and precise, requiring that the 13 subjects are shot in seven separate groups, which will then be melded together (along with two backgrounds) into a seamless picture by photo retoucher, Rory McAllorum. The work will then travel to Belgium to be screen printed and fired onto the panels.
The day of the photo shoot happens to be Holy Thursday. It wasn't planned this way, as the date was dependent on the availability of the room. Nonetheless, it lends an air of auspicious serendipity to the event.
The process, though, started many months earlier with John wandering the streets of Dublin looking for suitable candidates to fill the seats at his table. His method was simple: see someone with the right characteristics, walk up to them, ask if they'd consider partaking in his Last Supper, and if they said yes, make a video reference of them. Usually it went smoothly, and although not everyone agreed to his request, it was plain to see that this earnest man with the camera was genuine, and harmless. That is, except to the woman in the department store who saw him approaching, and who dived into the ladies' room. Although he waited outside, nonchalantly studying a wine list, inexplicably she never re-appeared. And so lost out on her moment of fame.
From the beginning, John Byrne ruled out using well-known faces, believing that ordinary people can be just as iconic as famous people. He proved this ably in his video filmed last summer, entitled Would you die for Ireland?, where he approached men and women on the street and asked them just that. Their answers - pithy, opinionated and candid - were in marked contrast to the rambling and noncommittal reply that waffled from the mouth of Bertie Ahern, whom John also managed to accost.
For his Last Supper, the Belfast-born artist "wanted to have people of different faith groups and of different colours". And while Western art has traditionally depicted Jesus as "a blue-eyed Nordic", John emphasises that "this would have been very unlikely. He would have been Asian."
Kulpreet, who portrays Jesus, is a computer science PhD student from Delhi, "a long way from the Holy Land," admits John. "But," he explains, "it's not meant to be representational; it's more about the issue of who owns Christ. I hope maybe this picture will make people think who Jesus is, or who good people are. Goodness is not a Christian monopoly."
Kulpreet, who is a Sikh ("I suppose the last name, Singh, is a dead giveaway," he laughs), was cast in the part only a few days previously, after John's original Jesus dropped out. Kulpreet's arrival on the scene was, as it were, a bit of an epiphany. After losing his first Christ, John was in a stew, having set his mind on having an Indian, and having searched unsuccessfully for nearly two weeks.
With just one day to rehearsals, "I went to the Winding Stair bookshop for something to eat," recalls the artist, "and I said to myself, relax, there's no way you're going to find an Indian in here with a beard! But I was eating my soup, and this guy walked in, but he had a ponytail, and dark glasses." The picture required loose, unfettered hair. Kulpreet, reluctant to undo his tresses then and there, agreed to meet John the next day to do the deed. "As soon as he unfurled his hair, I knew he was better than the original guy!"
And Kulpreet, with his calm demeanour and beautiful and beatific expression, is indeed, the perfect Christ. But all the "apostles", it must be said, are exemplary, and hard-working - eager to give this hyper, talkative, and quirkily creative artist their very best. Their collective goodwill fills the room with a pleasant, excited glow. Thirteen very different souls have come together to be captured in a remarkable art work - and thus make this Irish Holy Thursday a memorable one.
John Byrne's Last Supper will be installed this month at Bloom's Lane, Dublin