The Seven Deadly Sins
These images were originally created for the online gay arts magazine Mascular. They are digital collages inspired by the Seven Deadly Sins, from a gay perspective.
What do these sins actually mean to us now? How do moral constructs from the dark ages affect us in the gay community today? Each sin highlights traits that are part of human nature. They are the inner desires that have moved from pure ethical values to become part of popular culture - permeating our imagination through history, literature and the arts.
These collages refer to movies or stories that are emblematic of each sin and it’s consequences; the punishments the poor souls traditionally receive in hell and the symbolic colours associated with each of them. In the case of Pride, I have used a different jumping off point, using photographic images of same sex couples from the Victorian era to present day, with words that have been used to describe the LGBTQ experience.
Pride (A force for Good or the Original Sin?)
Constructed from found images of gay couples since the Victorian era; the final construct looks at the conflict of Pride in the modern world - the original sin or a force for change... Gay Pride, Black Pride, self-esteem etc
After the Orlando terror attack, this seems all the more pertinent...
Avarice was inspired by Casino, the wonderful portrayal of greed, corruption and 70s chic, the eternal punishment od being submerged in boiling oil, and of course the wonderful Saul Bass.
Envy was inspired by the fairy tale Snow White, with the envious Queen and her magic mirror the starting point. The huntsman dragging the child to the woods and the punishment of being submerged in frozen water for eternity were the other inspirations.
Lust, inspired by the wonderful mesmerising film 'Under the Skin', uses images from the movie: the husks of skin, the hard cocks that are the embodiment of 'Lust', and the fire of eternal damnation that awaits the sinners...
The perfect representation of Wrath in film is of course the Bride in Tarantino's Kill Bill, and the punishment of dismemberment alive chimes nicely with the visceral depictions of martial art sword fighting in the movie.