The Prayer

This is an etching print, done with ink. To do it, one has to carve out plexiglass in the patterns that one wants, flipped, because once it is passed through the printing press the image will be flipped. One then rubs the whole of the plexiglass with ink to get it into the crevices, and then with a block and newsprint, one rubs the plexiglass to remove excess ink and to further get it into the crevices. Once that is done, the plexiglass is ran through the press and one gets a shiny new print. The kneeling skeleton in the middle of the print is death, praying to the cross. All around him are examples of Christian persecution by others, mostly the romans. There is a cat'o'nine tails, Christians burned on crosses, being hanged upside down, eaten by lions, etc. There is also a bible with a note in it. It says: Mark 11:17, which refers to the passage of the bible :

¹⁷And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written:
" 'My house will be called
a house of prayer for all nations?'" But you have made it a den of robbers."

On the right, there is an apple covered. On top of it, one can see the inscription 'Mallus'. Basically, in the original Hebrew, the word used to describe the apple that Adam and Eve ate which caused them to be banned from Eden was the Fruit of Evil. Never does it say 'apple'. When it got translated to Latin, it became 'Mallus". The latin read 'the Fruit of Mallus', or fruit of evil. But 'Mallus', in latin, also means apple. When the bible got translated from latin into other languages, it seems the translators thought it would be very interesting for them to change the 'Fruit of Evil' into the 'Fruit of Apple'. Obviously, in english and in many languages that doesn't make too much sense, so it just became ' the apple'. Behind the skeleton and the cross there is a glass mural which is cracked, showing the persecution that Christians have caused all throughout history. This piece is basically a political/religious statement about hipocracy and contradictions in major publick institution, not Christianity itself per se. It was just the easiest to do, because of readily available information and clear examples. It also allows for greater impact, since a higher percentage of the population, at least in America, is Christian.


.November