Bruised

The Desolation of Cupid explores the “symbolic violence’ that has taken place when, dating back as far as the Renaissance, the west has taken the mythical figure of Cupid and re-branded it to suit its own needs.

The mythical figure once held deep and important cultural meanings that the Roman civilization used to communicate their belief system  and describe  the desired way of being.    It is these meanings that have been lost.  From a myth that described:  love and desire, betrayal and human weakness to the watered down silhouette of a cherub that we instantly recognise as our contemporary Cupid, Cupid’s transformation has been a long and destructive one.   My project concentrates on this movement from meaningful cultural text to meaningless consumable icon.

We are living in an age where reproduction is effortless and endless and our concept of “The Original” is somewhat challenged and this has informed my choice of digital format as a medium.   The Desolation of Cupid is intended to suggest to the viewer that the appropriating of cultural texts in order to satisfy our desire for the new, the exotic and the primitive is a destructive process whereby we unintentionally end up destroying the qualities we were originally attracted to.

Figure stock by felixdeon.deviantart.com/ pile of dead nude men 2

Texture by ninjarabbit-stock.deviantart.c… Texture 83