“Delirium of Reason,” is that so?
This evening I saw an exhibit in the Museo de San Ildefonso, near the Zocalo, titled: “Delirium of Reason.” By photographer David LaChapelle.
This exhibition is an ode to how low humanity has sunk. Where some men and women will do almost anything for a buck. As much as the attempt was to produce art, if one studies closely the vacant and narcissistic faces, you will get a void of emotion, and a good portion of stupefied expressions.
The image above of Courtney Love portraying the Virgin Mary, and her deceased husband draped across her arms is a defilement of that which is held sacred by many. By exploiting her deceased husband's image to the hilt for a piece of notoriety, is this truly art or exploitation? As well as an attempt to elicit some form of sympathy? As if she did not facilitate this by condoning and partaking in drug fests?
Then you have a simulated Christ sporting a California tan, with a calculated sensual pout, so de rigueur of your typical model. Did you imagine Christ on the last supper wearing a vacuous expression, knowing he’d be flagged and nailed to a cross in rapid succession? This after being stabbed on the back by someone He loved?
The futile attempt to make satire society’s obsession with technology and name brands, fails if you don’t attempt to abstain from your cell phone, lap top, and designer sneakers, lest you sin of hypocrisy.
If you really wanted to make a realistic reflection of the current state of society, you’d have to include a woman with engrossed lips thanks to Restylane. These plumped lips wrapped around the engorged penis of her boyfriend or husband, while being sodomised with a roll of quarters by her boss, client, or random benefactor. That’s what is called juggling to make ends meet, in order to acquire Gucci sunglasses.
And when you exploit the innocence of children in your photographs, why not include a little realism as well? And picture a mother who exposes her child to this depravity for $100 dollars in her real life. A woman who exploits the welfare system, and trains her kid at 5 yrs of age to make her own breakfast of cold cereal and milk, while she sleeps away the hangover from the previous night.
Or if you really want to be updated and shock, why not create a scene with naked men and women quivering after the collapse of the markets and banks? This juxtapositioned with naked corpulent CEO's carrying mounds of money and an indifferent smirk...although if you stay true to form, and only elicit vacuous expressions from your subjects -- so long as they look good...or shocking...then the point, will be entirely lost.
So you like your models naked, as they came into this world. It’s nothing I’ve never seen before. Yet, if you wanted to expose them in the raw, why not devoid of make up and pretense? Devoid of the mask applied to create the illusion of the ideal of beauty. Yet, in the practiced pose, devoid of depth, it’s merely a fest of teats, slits, and testicles.
If this is satire at its best, where do people draw the line between creativity and trash? There is fine line between freedom of expression and trashing what is sacred to some…regardless whether you believe in it or not. I cannot hate Jews because they crucified Christ. For if I did, then I’d also hate Jesus, Mary and Joseph too – and this I cannot do. My point is, we have to respect what’s sacred to others´ even if we have diverging ideologies.
When I left this exhibit, I felt disappointed, and saddened for humanity. This because it seems it’s in vogue to have lost the moral compass, and some people will sink to new lows for a dollar, even at the cost of their humanity. I felt as if…someone had wiped his ass with the flag, or used it as a menstruating pad in order to create "art."
Where is the line between what is okay simply wrong drawn? Can a pressing debt justify murder of family to benefit from an insurance claim? Is it justifiable for a mother to suffocate her newborn, born deformed? I reiterate, where is the line drawn?
If you don’t believe in something, what the fuck do you believe in besides your adoration for money and adulation to feed your ego?
“Delirium of reason?” Not likely, for reason would dictate that it include the suffering of the collapse of humanity. This is Sodom and Gomorrah duplicated.
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