Crucifixion in Crucifix Lane SE1

This ceremony is a part of the Easter tradition in the Philippines. Horsley was the first Westerner to be crucified.

The show, which combines Horsley's paintings, photographs by Dennis Morris and a film shot by Sarah Lucas, is centred upon this experience. It finds a fresh treatment and contemporary relevance for one of art's longest established subjects.

Says Horsley: "As an artist I don't want to paint things as they are but the way I feel and sense they are. I can only feel and sense how they are by undergoing the experience." He saw the pain of this experience as a necessary stage on the way to something more valuable. "An artist has to go to every extreme, to stretch his sensibility through excess and suffering, in order to feel and communicate more," he says. "I wanted to break the limits of life, to test the boundaries of reality. I wanted to hack off the ball and chain of personality. To see with real eyes – painting not to imitate reality but to make it real. No pain in the artist, no pain in the viewer. No tears in the artist, no tears in the viewer."

Crucifixion will be showing at Crucifix Lane Project, 1-5 Crucifix Lane, London SE1 from Friday 14 June to Thursday 18 July. Open 11am-6pm weekdays and 11am-2pm Saturday. The film will be screened continually during opening hours.