The Seven Deadly Sins

This work is a set of seven etching aquatint prints with surface rolls on Somerset Textured paper. I have employed the use of traditional religious allegory as a medium for political commentary and social critique.The driving force of the work are carefully selected appropriated magazine advertisements circa 1950 through the 1970s that can be read as an implication of the corresponding sins which i have assigned them to. These images are then reworked, removing some or all of the text and inserting corresponding literature to serve as the moral mouthpiece  of the work. In some of the prints, it delivers a subtle inquiry and in others a bold announcement. Examples of the literature i have chosen include Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable, Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, and Dante’s Purgatorio. The product logo of the advertisements are replaced by the title of the work. I have enlisted Peter Binsfeld’s Classification of Demons (1589), not only to create an implicit quality in the work; but also to personify each piece and invoke the demon, or sin in the piece, ex. Belphegor (the demon of sloth) as Belphegor Adjustable Couch. Each figure is rendered with a bit, bridle, and a set of blinders as one might see on a horse. This apparatus plays a central role in my work as an allegory for the slavery of the senses, subjugation of the mind, therefore prohibiting the human being from seeking the higher self.