DURHAM.- In the Name Of, at the DLI Museum and Durham Art Gallery features the work of internationally acclaimed artist Sigune Hamann.

The film and photographs on display show Sigune’s response to the themes, context and creation of the Lindisfarne Gospels, on display in the city until the end of September.

Inspired by the seven-year pilgrimage of the monks who carried the body of St Cuthbert and the gospels across more than 1,000 miles, the exhibition takes the idea of journeys and transitions as its theme.

From tourists exploring their surroundings to groups coming together because of shared ideals, there are references to journeys of all kinds and even shared gestures, such as waving, that we make as we arrive and depart.

One of two works created especially for this exhibition, is a series of portraits taken on the streets of Japan. Displayed on the route from the gospels exhibition to the DLI, the images show faces glimpsed in a crowd in a far-off place who become visitors to another city.

Also on display is Whitehall, London, 2010, a panorama captured during a political demonstration and created by using a photographic camera like a movie camera, exposing a whole roll of 35mm film in a continuous rewinding movement while walking or turning. Although the resulting image is static it contains traces of movement.

In Assmanshausen, 2007, a series of photographs taken on a cruise down the river Rhine, focusing on the tourist travellers as they record the scene on their cameras.

A second piece created in Germany, Heimlich, 2007, shows scenery is reflected in the river, blurred and distorted by the moving surface of the water. The images are then inverted and the interpretation of what we see is put into question.

The first and last work shown in the exhibition is a photograph from Hamann’s large and continuing series Wave and shows a child waving shyly to the camera.

The second piece created specially for In the Name Of moves away from the theme of journeys and instead considers the men associated with making and preserving the Lindisfarne Gospels – Ethelwald, Eadfrith, Billfrith and others. During her researches, she came across a stone of the same period in the National Museum of Scotland, which is inscribed with the letters I(N) NOMINE, an abbreviation of the Latin phrase In the Name Of and normally completed with the words God, the Father or the Lord. Taking this idea, Hamann has produced a series of stones each small enough to hold in the hand as a comfort, talisman or reminder.

In the Name Of is at the DLI Musuem and Durham Art Gallery until Sunday, 6 October.