On March 25, 2004, AL Khaf Gallery opened the exhibition “Jesus life and his teachings” for the famous Christian papercut artist Ms Fan Pu’s. More than fifty people were present when Ms Fan Pu was introduced by Rev Mitri Raheb, director of the ICB. Ms Fan Pu’s main work consisted of 153 pieces, a panorama15 meters long, where each piece is representing a different story in Jesus’ life, from the annunciation to his second coming. It is a unique work of art which is showed for the first time at the ICB.

Ms Fan Pu says: “I have adapted from the 18th century the late Qing Dynasty’s pattern of Peng-lai window picture of Shan-dong province in east China. The original usually had four, six or eight pictures as a set, but in my work there are 153 pictures in total. In every picture I have placed a fish. The 153 pictures tell the story of Jesus Christ and His teaching and there are 153 fishes in the whole set. The reason why I used 153 fishes in the set is that after Jesus’ coming back to life, his disciples experienced the powerful strength of the resurrection through catching 153 fishes in the sea of Tiberias and then their life was changed. 153 is a wonderful number. It is said that it is the accumulation of love, and God is love.

Ms Fan Pu was born in Nanjing, China. After graduating from middle school, she was sent to Xinjiang province to work on an agricultural farm during the Cultural Revolution. Returning from Xinjiang she began working for a fine art company while simultaneously doing independent university studies and taking fine art courses. During that period Fan Pu began creating paper cuts. Ms Fan Pu is a gifted artist and is well known as one of the most important Chinese Christian paper cutters. She has participated in exhibitions in Hong Kong, Beijing, Vienna and in Germany. From 1993 – 2003 she was the deputy director of a Christian Art Centre before she retired.

The International Centre of Bethlehem cordially invites you to visit the exhibition which will last until April 19. The gallery is open daily, except Sunday, between 9:00 – 19:00.