Latex paint, acrylic, screen print, oil, colored pencil on wood

14 soy wax candles

Open: 71” x 46” x 0.75”

This installation is the origin story of the “cult of self” that I have strived to create over the past year. Appropriating Michelangelo's Temptation scene from the Sistine Chapel and imbuing my own physical likeness, personal symbology, and p0rnographic material, Genesis Altarpiece serves as a manifestation of the sexual siren song that I (and many other queer folks) have both embraced and fallen to. The side panels feature the angel and devil cherubs that have become a constant symbol for the duality that I often feel within myself: the good and bad, the joyful and despair, the self and the other. 

Candle (after Gober) was cast from my own phallus and functions as a representation of my own manhood. 14 candles, double of seven, represents a multiplicity of perfection. As patrons light the candles in a manor mirroring rituals seen in cathedrals and churches, my own physical manhood and feelings towards gender begin to disintegrate before our eyes. In all, the installation seeks to reclaim religious symbols and objects as a means of reconciliation and queer expression