Hi all! I apologize for not making a blog post recently. I’ve been pretty busy as a soon-to-be

Hi all! I apologize for not making a blog post recently. I’ve been pretty busy as a soon-to-be-graduating senior working on a thesis project and TA-ing two classes. Over the past month I’ve accumulated a ton of interesting art stuff that I want to share with you guys, so expect some posts coming up. Above is La Nona Ora, a wax sculpture by Maurizio Cattelan. He is a rather absurdist neo-dada artist who likes making provocative art with a sense of humor.La Nona Ora depicts Pope John Paul II getting struck by a meteor. It was an extremely controversial on its debut, (for obvious reasons). The title, when translated, means “the ninth hour”, referring to the moment Christ yelled out “why have you forsaken me?” to God before dying on the cross. In this context, we take the Pope as a forsaken figure, but there’s a twinge of irony to it. The Pope dedicates his life to the heavens, and in this scene when the heavens send him a message back, it’s with a symbol of atheism that leads to his demise. I became interested in Cattelan while doing some research on his latest work: an 18 karat gold toilet seat installed in the bathroom of the Guggenheim last year. Anybody (even you!) can go to the Guggenheim museum and use this toilet! The work is titled America and very clearly mocks American tropes of wealth and excess. Most people also are reminded of Donald Trump with this work (who actually has a golden sink in one of his jets), but Cattelan started working on this piece about a year before Trump took over the headlines during the 2016 election. Regardless of intent, however, the piece still screams Trumpism with a megaphone. If you’re curious to see more Cattelan work, this trailer for a documentary about him actually gives a decent overview of his work. The documentary hasn’t been released publicly yet but I’m very excited to check it out someday soon.  -- source link

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