What you see to your left is an entry/nominee by Sydney photographer Dean Sewell for this year's Blake prize, the prestigious award for religious art.I have to say that I fell in love with this picture as soon as I saw it. It just so beautifully captures and articulates the modern day savior that the media turned party boy Corey into. I say savior in only a Christ-like-imagery type of way, leaving all moral and ethical judgments aside. This is not about whether Corey is Christ or the devil.
For those who don't know about Corey...well, there's not much to say. A 15-year-old Victorian threw a big party, got on the news, and the media decided to make a huge deal out of it that only ended up providing too much time and money for one hardly interesting, party throwing teen. It is interesting to wonder why Corey did become such a sensation. Were all of the interviews just another type of freak show in which we (the audience) look at society's outcasts to generally feel better about ourselves?
The picture speaks to the current zeitgeist of celebrity, showing how the media, and I guess how society too, ends up inadvertently holding a celebrity to such a Christ like position by simply looking too long. Not that I am saying that every person saw Corey as a modern day Jesus Christ (in fact, quite the opposite), but the picture encapsulates how the "15 minutes of fame" can so vehemently tune in a public's gaze.
I just love it. But perhaps you disagree. Let me know what you think...
Posts
4 comments:
I don't consider myself to be particularly violent at all, but if I ever see this little sh*t in person I'd say there's at least an 80% chance I'll hit him so hard he doesn't get back up.
HAHAHA Michael!
I think this is artistic brilliance. For one, teenagers around Australia looked at him like he was some kind of saint - little did they know it was another wanker from Naree Warren.
I don't know if you could put Jesus in a pair of trackies, thongs and a Bonds chesty; and still look at him like he was Jesus..
In what way, shape or form has he ever embodied anything religious? That is my major problem with this, my other problem is it glorifies an already overly glorified figure whose only claim to fame is being a public douche. Seeing as I'm a skeptic and I found it a stretch to say the least that you could compare Corey to Christ I'm left wondering what actual church going people would think of it.
I guess the point of the picture is to show what a joke the media circus was. He didn't embody a Christ like figure in most (if not any) people's eyes, but the attention that was paid on his was enormous. The artist is saying that the media gives so much attention to 15 minute fame seekers that they are almost seen as holy. And perhaps its a comment on where society is going, where characters like Corey are considered to be so famous and bigger than Jesus.
But who knows, maybe this wasn't the point of the picture at all. But if not, I wonder what it was.
Post a Comment