IS2 FINAL – HOLY CARDS

proposal question

What is the relationship between the sexuality and Christianity in visual culture?

thesis: In 1 Corinthians, Paul writes, “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body”. In the modern Christian religion, sexuality is seen as taboo and only to be present in the covenant of a marriage. Like all things, modernity has adapted this forbidden relationship between sexuality and religion to be the subject of our visual culture. In popular visual culture, the relationship between Christianity and sexuality is illicitly seductive, making it the perfect captivating subject matter. In this sense, visual culture uses Christian iconography like the cross, Jesus, and the Virgin Mary in a sexual manner to convey personal artist’s opinions about the concept of religion and sexuality.

image archive: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1i45kzeaz0gEqz_7WLCNraaDuE5qbTMaO

inspirations: My biggest inspirations for this project were the works by Alma Lopez, David LaChappelle, and the Lana Del Rey Tropico film. I took inspiration for the materiality and editing of the photos from vintage French tarot cards and the saturated color of stained glass.

Image result for french tarot cards

Image result for alma lopez our lady

process: My original plan for the project was to create 27 holy cards that were a combination of photography and digital manipulation and illustration. That suddenly became unattainable: both the illustration aspect and the amount of cards. I ended up creating 12 holy cards: 12 fronts and 12 backs, resulting in 24 final images. I took the images using a camera and then edited them in Photoshop using text and outtakes of the shoot for colorful backgrounds and interesting effects. The font I used was ‘Cloister Black’. For the text on each card, I used Bible verses or known Christian phrases that had a sexual connotation or  tone, especially for the images that didn’t show nudity or sexual content of any  kind. Here are some of the unedited and raw images, as well as the first round of editing, which were too hard edged and not as dreamy and alluring as the finals. Each card (front/back) took around 2-3 hours to edit each because I kept being  unhappy with the editing process, but ultimately would come up with a composition and editing style for each photo that I loved.

materiality and cohesion of setting: I used a NikonD3300 to take the initial photographs using props I collected. The props I used were a toy snake, a rosary, candles, lingerie, condoms, lighters, angel wings, devil horns, and various bed settings. These images were either shot in my bedroom or the model’s bedroom with the exception of Adam and Eve, shot in my backyard for a garden setting.

models: pierced hands – simon chen ;; prayer hands – alexander nazon ;; adam and eve – zeid jaouni and malath kamaluldeen ;; angel – angelo capacyachi ;; devil – alexandra mcdowell ;; immaculate conception – margaret wolf ;; rosary – madeline benfield ;; snake – abigail gregory ;; mary – alexandra bellman ;; jesus – cale zepernick ;; judas – angelina cantu 

final product: 

artist statement: For the final Integrative Studio/Seminar II project, I decided to study and research the relationship between sexuality and Christianity in 4 aspects of visual culture: visual art, film, music videos, and fashion. From my discoveries, I created a series of 12 holy cards depicting different symbols and icons of the Christian religion: pierced hands, prayer hands, Adam and eve, an angel, a devil, the immaculate conception, a rosary, a snake, the Virgin Mary, Jesus, Judas, and an altar. My original idea was to create a series of altars for Mary, Jesus, and Judas out of acrylic, plaster, and wood, but I thought that my skills and ideas would be emphasized more through a 2-D focused project. My inspiration from this project came from vintage French tarot cards and stained glass, from which I borrowed a vintage small card and the use of bright colors, respectively. I wanted to take the aspect of holy cards from Catholicism with a contemporary spin. I started the project by deciding which 12 symbols I would use, followed by taking the images with a Nikon D3300, and finally by editing and manipulating the images in Adobe Photoshop. Each holy card has an aspect of sexuality mixed in, either through the props, partial nudity, implications of sexuality, or sexually manipulated Bible verses or ideas on the back of the card. I was influenced by the works I researched for the seminar paper, especially by Alma Lopez and Lana Del Rey’s Tropico. This project is reflective of my works as a whole through my integration of two of my personal interests, both religion and sexuality, the color scheme, graphic design, photo manipulation, typography, and photography.

reflection: After my critique on the Tuesday studio class, I wished I had made the cards bigger so that the text would be easier to read. Also, Daniel said that the title of my paper (Condom or Condemn) was holding me back, so I wish I had come up with a different title. Overall, I am really pleased with how they turned out, especially the Virgin Mary, the angel, and the altar.

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