Controversial Art - Sort of NSFW

[MysterionMuffles]

http://www.earthporm.com/spanish-artist-reveals-ugly-side-society-controversial-illustrations/

 

This rather thought provoking, albeit hypersexualized art is a grotesque depiction of our current society. I most especially like the one of the African child chewing on The Bible. Great F U to the missionaries who go there to teach religion instead of actually feeding the hungry.

[Sal9000]

This is brilliant.

[Matthew Ed Moran]

I am having mixed feelings about this art. I think one thing I really don't like is how little variability there is between the pictures. One thing that seems completely absent from most of the pictures is a sense of free will, or a sense that the subjects in the pictures can escape or reject the situations they are depicted in, or a depiction of a figure who stands in contrast to all the ugliness.

 

Just a few examples:

 

The "slave" girlfriend is tied up in chains. But we know that in relationships they are no chains  - they are voluntary. But to the extent people ignore this, the more it will seem like there are chains. So I don't like the message this sends (or at least what I think the message is).

 

The guy being censured has a guillotine strapped to his hand. There is no sense that he can get around the censure, or fight back against it with his ingenuity as a communicator.

 

The girl is being fed cash and having her cheeks pulled apart... from the depiction, you get the sense she is being coerced.. But we know that porno people sign up for it voluntarily.

 

The young boy is controlled by the girl's sex appeal, but what about when he is an adult and can reject big tits in favor of virtue? What about the young boys who don't have shitty supports systems, and therefore aren't experimenting with sex at such a young age?

 

So I don't like the message I think this would send to people who are susceptible to becoming trapped in an ugly life. It is not showing them that there is another way. And if there is anything I've learned from this site, it's that we have free will and that there is always another way (to dealing with child hood trauma, which I think is the underlying cause of most of the things the depictions represent in out society).

 

I find it dis-empowering, like the author is only trying to highlight the tragedy, ugliness, and double-think of American culture, but is leaving out the choices these people are making, and thus is trying to strip others their ability to conceive of going another route. I get a sense of hopelessness seeing the same ugliness recurrent in every picture.

 

Maybe I am way off but that is my impression. Thanks for sharing!

 

Edit: But also, as someone who is well attuned to the ugliness of our culture, maybe I am ignoring the effect this may have on people who have normalized a lot of the culture they are surrounded by. Perhaps it serves a more enlightening message to them.. But then again, if we don't show the contrast the the ugliness in culture, and we are made to think it is static and will always be shit, I don't blame some people for ignoring it.. If the "truth" was that the world is shit and there is nothing I can do to change it, then finding solace in illusion actually would seem like the best thing once could do in that situation.

[PatrickC]

Yes, they are interesting critiques on modern culture for sure. But I'm left with the rather unpleasent nihilist sentiment in them. That these characters are utterly beyond redemption, depraved and devoid of any hope in them.