A chain and spinning mechanism gives the piece life as the object-observer relationship is demolished when they spin the wheel. What I mean by this is that the observer is no longer simply gazing at a static piece, but they are now a part of the piece; perhaps being observed by others and so on. In this way the story of Saint Catherine really has been materialised as it can physically be touched and played with, unlike that of an oil painting or spoken word of a legend. She is brought to life by the Observer and her story is remembered. 

Landy’s Saints Alive exhibition is filled with up-scaled sculptures representing various saints. It is quite interesting to realise that his depiction of Saint Catherine was the only piece in the whole collection that did not use the woman’s figure. Landy has cleverly taken the term ‘figuratively’ and has adopted its multiple meanings to his work. Instead of figuratively presenting her, as he did with the other saint sculptures, he figuratively presented her by other means. In other words, rather than producing a figure with likeness to Catherine’s physical appearance, he metaphorically depicted her with the use of the symbolic wheel. Moreover, Landy has essentially made Catherine stand out from the rest, perhaps in connection with her undetermined existence as a saint. Her body is nowhere to be seen in this exhibition, but rather a large wheel which is enough to carry her tale. The power of the object is present here as a ‘single symbol or attribute could serve as a stand-in for the larger narrative’ (Michael Landy: Saints Alive, making of documentary 2014).