Often the traditional symbols of sainthood are lost on the modern
audience. The methods of murder, like lion pits, gladiators,and the
like seem so fanciful that there is no reason to weigh them against
reality. They exist, untouched and beyond compare in a
storybook-like legends that people read symbolically, but don't really
take as real.
Saints of the modern era, M.L.King, M. Ghandi, and the like, all met
their fate with the use of a modern weapon, the Gun. One thing
preventing us from recognizing the saintliness in modern heros is
that the methods of murder and torture have changed.
When describing the idea for this, the model could not be faint of
heart. But once I had stretched the photographic canvas on
plywood, I took it to a shooting range and shot it in the back with a
357 magnum. Here is our modern saint. Shown killed by that same
weapon that so many of us hold up as an inalienable right, symbol of
liberty, freedom, revenge, and the end to unpleasant rabble rousers.
How many great unrecorded, unreligious saints, have given their
lives questioning authority, standing up in the face of bigotry, fighting
for an end to prejudice, to be shot down in a moment, less
remembered for a lack of lions.
CYBEReTOWER™ LLC. All text and photographs are copyrighted by the artist, Erik Moore, all rights reserved.
