Piece for 'Interview Magazine, Russian Edition' that involes religion
Anna Battista / Cheyco Leidmann
A.B. "- Were you ever attacked for using images of crosses or Anna Battista / Cheyco Leidmann
religious symbols in your photographs? "
C.L. I was physically attacked by executing my critical graphic work
but never by shooting the church's erotic Mother of Invention.
A.B."- When does provocation finish and offence begin in a
photograph or in fashion? (in the piece I state that profanity is in
the eye of the beholder and I wonder what would happen if a
fashionista wearing a garment/accessory that may be deemed as
offensive to religion would end up in jail or if a photographer
coming up with a controversial image in an advert would end up
in jail...) "
C.L. Provocation for the sake of it is nihilism, to be a shock jock is
not controversial and therefore not my thing. My work does not
function to articulate any radical message especially not in a reli-
gious dictatorship.Their imagination is not free.A protagonist who
traverses the bible without having sex is a mystery in its own.
A.B."-Do you feel that photographers and fashion designers using
specific religious symbols or nudity are genuinely being contro-
versial or that they are being controversial for the sake of it so that
the media talk about them? "
C.L. My surrealistic eyes try to combine sex and violence hinted with
the religious depths of eroticism by using symbols translated into
personal,coded reactions and explicit reflection. Wherever religion
present itself it is frightening.Wherever people censor art, it is a
scandal. Serious work has to sustain thoughts and emotions that go
with aesthetic contemplation with no regard for markets, trends,
fashions or media hush hush . ---
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Cheyco Leidmann's latest ALTAR project 'Zeta Nacht' received a lot
of positive audience participation but also harmful propaganda.
The 'Zeta Nacht ' :
The Triptych-Ziggurat is an installation outside the context of an
altarpiece, where I return in the temple turning over the tables,
where I seduce the virtueless,the believers to follow me as I stroll
down the long nave toward the altarpiece,the Triptych so full of lies
and secrets,it shouts the truth for all to see .Every breath,every
step takes us to the dance of the golden calf,every breath,every
step takes us towards the last night of the earth.The false gods of
materialism rise in the altars of the believers with its flocks wor-
shipping at the altar of mass consumption.With the lure of the
powerful illusions,declusions.Built at the basis on the colorful
excesses of kneeling penitents in liturgical blood ,praying to the
suspended truth of greed and beauty before they dance off into the
night with the golden calf while militant apes guard the altar which
is divided into three distinctive sections where the images fit to-
gether in fragments.
The central presented with a meticulous detail of dancing with the
vapid sirens and mannequins and who mean no harm, and yet they
do harm as they too,are sacrificed on the altar,and standing in high
heels the flamboyant Catherine de Medici ,upon it bestows an
almost sacred quality as it is a priceless relics to a sense of sorrow
or absence.
The right panel shows the dead live on the shoulders of Brueghal,
curls of barbed wire slither in and out of the garden among the
models,the icons,the idols. Blinded by arrows through the eyes,see
what is within.
The left panel clasps the ultimate goal to land in a good spot for all
eternity.
Both panels end where the shadow of the earth eclipses the moon,as
the shadows of the insensate rule the hordes,and the brightest star
in the constellation Zeta Tauri shines.In destruction lies creation.
Awaken the senses to a new awareness of our existence in the world.
Dance around the golden calf,dance with Nolde,worship and then
slay your idols.Clear out the temple,clear the dance floor for the
final dance of Zeta Nacht.Kill your idols.