Santigo Sierra's provocative art work has often evoked feelings of repulsion due to the somewhat distasteful manner in which he conducts his pieces, however this is not in vain, but actually an exhibition of a very real dilemma currently existing in society. The image below displays how Sierra paid four drug addicts in heroin to have a line tattooed on their back. In this case, art, in a overt exploitative way intervened quite personally in their everyday life, magnifying the ailments of the much larger capitalist system which, in the same way, affects us just as much.
“The tattoo is not the problem. The problem is the existence of social conditions that allow me to make this work.”
Whilst the people chosen acted out of their own volition it, nevertheless, demonstrates how the system can break a person down to the point where they are ready to offer their bodies as a sacrifice for dose of a substance which will ultimately keep them in bondage to the system.
What draws me to this piece is the vulnerability of the person, the permanence of the tattoo, the bodily sacrifice and how it's nature is explicitly interventionist. By choosing the often ignored and disregarded in society and putting them on a warped pedestal, the innocent bystander becomes not so innocent in their active lack of participation with a quite apparent abuse of power. Sierra calls us to wake up and pay attention to the abusive nature of the system, and how we are all permanent participants in different ways.
In this way image becomes political, when it encapsulates a message and motivates a people. It inspires me to create an image that will capture the essence of a political statement as beautifully as Sierra. That the image will capture a moment in time where an intervention took place and spoke volumes through an intricate and potentially violent but necessary unpacking
of the every day life.
 |
| Santigo Sierra 160cm line tattoo |
No comments:
Post a Comment