Born in 1950 in New York, Andres Serrano was raised in a devoutly Catholic neighborhood where religion played a significant part of his growing up. From his first images as an artist, sacred icons and other symbolic elements have been frequenting his tableaux-like photographs. From religious iconography, human subjects, dead animals to more precise elements such as blood (a symbol for passion and violence), urine, milk, semen and later excrement, the artist seeks to convey a sense of dignity to his subjects and to reconcile the sacred and the profane through what Germano Celant termed as “the synthesis of the opposite”, so that “the lower part is in dialogue with the upper part, the human with the divine, the earthbound with the celestial”.
Despite his emphasis that it’s not his intention to shock or offend the public, Serrano’s work is often proved to be far more provocative than he ever intended. His now infamous photograph of a crucifix submerged in urine, titled Piss Christ (1987), was criticized by the Senator Alfonse D'Amato as “obscene art” in the late 1980s (the polemic has ironically earned him fame as a young artist). Twenty years later, the controversy goes on. Last April (2011), when the photograph was shown in Avignon amidst the collection of the French collector and gallery owner, Yvon Lambert, an angry group of fundamentalist Christians marched in to destroy the work with hammers and ice-picks.
'I always say that my works are open to interpretation. Sometimes I know what I mean and other times I am less clear. I don’t really care what I intend because creativity is an act of the imagination and it doesn't need explanation. I don’t feel the need to defend my work because an artist should be articulate only when he or she feels the need to express themselves. Otherwise, the artist should withdraw and let the work speak for itself. One thing I have learnt over the years is that people have their own interpretations, they see different things. I remember when I did the portraits of the Klan, my assistant commented that “these portraits look like recruitment posters for the Klan”. I was definitely taken aback by his comment. It was not my intent to glorify the Klan but when I shoot my subjects, I monumentalize them and make them bigger than life. No matter who or what I photograph, I try to make the strongest image possible.'
http://www.initiartmagazine.com/interview.php?IVarchive=87
Andres Serrano. Immersions (Piss Christ), 1987
http://www.reframingphotography.com/content/andres-serrano
Piss Elegance, 2004
http://www.artspace.com/andres_serrano/piss_elegance
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| America, 2003 |
Andres Serrano
http://www.artspace.com/andres_serrano/america
Child Abuse (from the Morgue Series), 1996
http://www.artspace.com/andres_serrano/child_abuse
