Light of chaos

2010 Gabriela Mistral Gallery - Santiago, Chile.

Scenography built from waste materials and second hand plastic toys, simulates an altar inside a 6 meters by 4 meters high cathedral. Made in situ for the exhibition inside the large room of the gallery.

In the small room two sculptures made of resin and fiberglass with polychrome finishes attached to the wall by a metal forging.

Photographic record:

© Jorge Brantmayer

From a desacralized altarpiece to a sacrilegious altarpiece. The artist uses Catholic iconography to perpetrate a profane altar, with the intention of unmasking a religious institution that not only has collaborated and collaborates with dark powers, but that in its own internal administration is governed by corrupt logics. The church.

The smell of lighted candles fills the space of art turned into a presbytery. The parishioners, the spectators, kneel in front of the new gods, action figures, fictional characters, the pope or George Bush, amusingly throwing bombs, missiles, tongues of fire. Faith in the irreducible holy war shown with precarious elements and abandoned objects. All the glory and majesty of a millionaire company, the one founded by St. Paul, made of trap and cardboard.

Here we are shown the artifice without gold leaf. The ecclesiastical hierarchy is exposed, its power systems, the interests that guide it, the moral deceptions. A swarm of things fly over the altar (space vehicles, warships and winged baby dolls, phantasmagoric ships, among others).

Instead of an open bible, the book that presides over the Lights of Chaos is the guide of companies. Lord, allow us to enter the list of corporations, a word from you will suffice before the notary.  

In an adjacent chapel we will find refuge in front of the figures of Christ and the Virgin Mary. It is the Christ of ballistics and the atomic Virgin, who takes care of the murderous axe stained with the blood of the one who doubts. Spectators, lambs of God, go in peace and announce the Gospel, Coca-Cola without sugar and the Star Wars saga.

Text: Juan José Santos