The first Irish show from provocative American artist Andres Serrano opens at Derry's Void Gallery this weekend, having already caused a major stir in the walled city.
Since the '80s, Serrano's work has sparked furious debate, raising questions worldwide about censorship, taste, public decency and acceptable modes of expression. In 1987, his infamous work P*** Christ - depicting a small plastic crucifix submerged in a glass of the artist's urine - ignited a national conversation in the US on the freedom of artistic expression and the public financing of controversial artworks.
That controversial work will feature in Serrano's Derry show, entitled Torture.
An image from Andres Serrano's 'Torture' series
Working over the past year in the French industrial town of Maubourguet, Serrano assumed the role of 'torturer'. Using a local foundry as his 'black site' (a term that has gained notoriety in describing secret prisons operated by the CIA in the War On Terror) he photographed more than 40 models in improvised positions, with devices produced on-site by local residents. The resulting pictures deliberately evoke a series of distressing reference points, ranging from Nazi concentration camps to Iraqi detainee centres - included in the series is The Hooded Men, a series of four images of men who were subjected to extreme torture in Northern Ireland in 1971.
Despite its politically loaded content, it's the inclusion of his earlier religious imagery that has led to Serrano's show being condemned by local religious organizations in Derry.
"It is easy for people like him to take a cheap shot and mock Christ, mock Christian people and mock the Bible," Rev Roger Higginson of Coleraine Free Presbyterian Church told the Belfast Telegraph. "If you consider artists like Leonardo da Vinci or Rembrandt, they didn't set out to shock people or be controversial because they had real talent and their work spoke for itself. Perhaps if, as an artist you need to shock and cause offence and outrage to get your work noticed, it may be because of a lack of real talent."
"Andres Serrano's work is very direct and the viewer is faced with the horrors of torture," Void director Maoliosa Boyle told the Telegraph. "People in Derry are very interested in politics and are very familiar with the details of the Hooded Men which are part of this exhibition."
Andres Serrano's Torture opens Saturday 8 October at Void Derry, with an artist's talk at 6.30pm. The show runs until December 17th.
