Laura Keeble, a British artist, takes stained glass from old churches and turns it into everyday objects. This McDonald's Happy Meal becomes a symbol of the Eucharist titled The Glass Supper. In other pieces, memorial church glass becomes a security camera and a phone booth becomes a confessional.
These works express Keeble's fascination with how certain physical forms establish and distinguish between the sacred and the profane. In an interview for the Lawrence Alkin Gallery, she explains:
I've been interested in the use of stained glass and the ecclesiastical language of sacred and holy relics/objects for some time.
I find the aspect of ‘magical thinking’ a very interesting thought process, that no matter what culture we originate from this thought that an object can have such divine powers as to control a situation externally from itself has thrived for centuries. Stained glass in particular was originally used by the church to convey the stories of the bible for parishioners who were unable to read but also the view was that when the light from the sun shone through the images of the biblical stories, it was some how purified and made sacred. […]
I decided to create glass CCTV’s to examine the omnipresence. The idea of being watched everywhere by a control. The aspect of not ever questioning an authority and the feeling that you must follow a set of rules or face the consequences. The feelings of guilt and fear are very much promoted in our society and the idea that we need to be watched at all times incase something bad happens or we do something bad is an interesting way of creating a false sense of safety.
Although it's not stained glass, I can't resist adding this great visual pun that Keeble made. It shows Margaret Thatcher, the "Iron Lady," as a literal iron.
-via Hi-Fructose