Dimensions variable. Abandoned car, contact paper, string, wheat glue, tape, and paint. 2016.

The project The Ecstasy of God, Gold, and Glormany is part of my series of site-specific street art sculptures made for the Lakkos neighborhood in Heraklion, Crete during an artist residency at LAKKOS AIR. I researched this neighborhood in order to create sitespecific works that revealed something about the neighborhood’s history, architecture, daily-life, as well as the political climate in Greece in general. For The Ecstasy of God, Gold, and Glormany I wanted to reflect on colonization in the 21st century and how contemporary colonization does not take form in the “heroic” battles of the past, but instead turns physical brutality into conceptual cruelty by financially crippling a country into submission. The title not only references, the three G’s that European colonizers of America were often motivated by (God, Gold and Glory), but also has an art historical reference to Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Teresa . The spears of light and gold in Bernini’s Ecstasy of St. Teresa influenced the composition and lightening beams in my installation. Saint Teresa’s “ecstasy” is depending on interpretations, being closer to god and through that there is glory, in much of the same way colonizers in the past thought it was god’s calling for them to exploit other countries and resources under the guise of “civility.” I referenced the dramatic style of Baroque art that exudes dominance, control, power, and triumph. These themes that can also be seen my installation’s reference to the car as an Olympic podium complete with a droopy Olympic symbol as well as 1st , 2nd , and 3rd place whose colors are that of the German flag. The contact paper of tiles and wood on the car, the void mosaic on the ground, the handcrochet Olympic sign, as well as the religious painting in the background all reference domesticity and vulnerability felt by the colonized country.In this installation, I urge viewers to be aware of how meaning and actions of colonization can change over time and how we can use this to try to avoid falling into the viciousness of the past.

VICTORIA DEBLASSIE

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