Artwork Description:
Station number TEN is entitled, ROMAN SOLDIERS STRIP CHRIST OF HIS CLOTHING. This wall assemblage was executed in mixed media on stretched canvas. During the time of Christ time, and especially in Jerusalem, it was both humiliating and sinful for one to appear naked. Romans crucified their prisoners in the nude to heighten the condemned persons shame. Jesus was no exception to this and was forced to expose his body to the world. I began to meditate upon the very idea of being naked in public, especially when the public nudity is combined with torture and sadism. I researched images expressing this type of degradation and decided to search dumpsters for this type of imagery. I found the infamous image from the Vietnam war of a young napalmed girl running down a road. . . I found three naked men in a concentration camp surrounded by their captors. . . I found a lynched woman from the American south hanging from a tree. I saw all of these tortured people as simply another face of Christ and composed the following line, which was then typed and adhered to the work. HENCEFORTH MY NAKEDNESS EXPOSES ALL INJUSTICE, EVEN UNTIL THE END OF TIME. The concept that these images were considered to be refuse that I found in trash only enhances the statement of the entire work, as well as demonstrates the cruel abandonment of this age. . . the Age of Technological Divinity. Materials included Copper Leaf, Acrylic polymers, acrylic paint, gloss acrylic gel, altered digital photographs of photos found in trash, glues, canvas mica, titanium dioxide, dried pigments, and wood. Please note that all Found Photos were gathered on the streets of Philadelphia, New York City, and Camden, New Jersey.