Jesus in a Crowd (After Ensor), by Jeffry Mitchell, was made in 1991. It’s an installation made of plaster, plywood and papier maché, with watercolor, acrylic and latex paint. In all, the work is 8 feet high by 12 feet wide by 7 feet deep.

Jesus in a Crowd consists of 2 parts: in the foreground is a puppet-like figure, comprising a head, torso and long arms, but no legs. The puppet has a bald, clown-like head, bright shiny pink with blank white oval eyes and nose, no mouth, and large ears that stick out. This shiny pink head sits atop a stuffed red and white striped knitted sweater, enclosing a torso and exaggeratedly long arms: they’re so long that the forearms rest along the floor. At the end of each arm, a plump pink hand, with short fat fingers, rests palm upwards. In the center of each palm is a pierced hole, surrounded by a deeper pink area.

On the wall behind the puppet is a rectangular element consisting of a crowd of small, clown-like faces stuck onto a pink background. The white clown faces are similar to each other but not identical. Some are round, some more oval; and they have a variety of red button noses, staring, beady eyes and rosy cheeks. Some have rounded or smiling red mouths; others have protruding red tongues. The faces at the bottom are slightly bigger than those at the top, giving a suggestion that the crowd of faces is receding into the distance.