The Martyrs Chronicles
Portraits of Saints and Sinners
Exhibition runs: 12th - 21st Dec 2012
Location: Gallery & Project Space Great Western Studios
www.greatwesternstudios.com
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious. In its purest form, martyrdom is a voluntary, conscious, and altruistic readiness to suffer and offer one's life for a cause. The Christian martyr seeks certain death. Islamic tradition gives first place to a soldier dying in a holy war, or jihad, who aimed to defeat an adversary without, necessarily, losing his own life. Jewish tradition assigns the honour not only to those who affirm the faith against threat, but to victims such as those of the Holocaust, who were not given the choice.
Martyrdom is a religio-political act of conflict between social groups. Typically, the weaker of the antagonists produces martyrs.
This series of portraits reinterprets Saints and Martyrs iconography in a modern and sacrilegious view that blends sacred and profane. Where the sado-masochist leads to a new form of martyrdom and the pain is the way to reach the pleasure of the beatification.
Pain, lust, death and salvation are the main themes of these digital portraits.
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