Thursday, January 31, 2013

A Too Colorful Satan?

Bones' Sculpture

Bienvenido Bones Banez, Jr., a surrealist artist from the Philippines, apparently suffered a tragic experience with his art when he sculpted a Colorful Satan and conferred upon his creation the role of a creature who adds "color to the world" within a felix culpa economy of salvation, for at the time that he sculpted the 'diabolical' statue you see depicted above, a group of young people calling themselves the "666 Gang" wreaked acts of vandalism upon Davao City in the Philippines in the name of their "Satanic Fraternity" -- their own words -- and thereby set in motion a reaction to Bien's statue that resulted in its transfer to a different province, where it languished far from viewers' curious eyes but under the watchful, glaring eye of the sun, under whose withering gaze, the colors gradually faded.

A sad tale, especially since Bien had no inkling -- as he vows, "so help me God," to have known nothing of the "666 Gang" -- that his sculpture would be considered so dangerously diabolical, but he is philosophical:
Well, that's life's manifestation of becoming and actualization in God's plan for surrealist artists.
Or is that not so much philosophical as theological? If you click on the image above, you should be able to read Bones' own words on what transpired and judge for yourself.

Meanwhile, you can visit the artist's website, where he presents his own "666 World" of art, by which I believe he means to say that we're already living in the tribulation, a sort of "realized eschatology" (if I might borrow an expression from Rudolf Bultmann).

On felix culpa soteriology, see here, but more here.

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5 Comments:

At 6:35 AM, Blogger ilTassista Marino said...

A sad story, really. (Incidentally, BBB's Satan had nothing of a Satanist dark look...) The same thing happened to the fathers of the movement, the first Surrealists. And without any need of a "gang" as an excuse: their works were 'simply' hated as such, and sometimes destroyed.

 
At 6:48 AM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Mr. Em in the BBB is an exceptionally deceptive fellow . . .

Jeffery Hodges

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At 7:08 AM, Blogger ilTassista Marino said...

I just remembered an even more paradoxical case. The wonderful, modern Cross exhibited during the Catholic World Youth Day in the Holy Year 2000
(see here) that was "temporarily left" in an "open storage" i.e. basically abandoned in a dump. A miracle of Italian red-tape offices. The magazine where I worked at that time revealed the thing. And the work of art was recovered afterward.

 
At 7:17 AM, Blogger ilTassista Marino said...

Here's a visual reportage posted by the artist who made the Cross.

 
At 7:35 AM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Fascinating crucifix (more than a cross).

Jeffery Hodges

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