Judas: Saturday
Photographic series, 2019
Exhibited at Project Room, Helsinki
It is easy to search for the elusive feeling of Christ in someone you can touch. It is not Christ who I am depicting, in these compositions, it is someone who inhabits the indicators of his depiction: His wounds. But the character also inhabits the positions of the betrayer.
Saturday refers to the events in the photographs supposedly happening on Holy Saturday, the day after Good Friday. In both the western and eastern traditions, it is believed that Christ descends into hell on Holy Saturday to retrieve all those who are to be saved but have merely waited for the act of salvation to occur. This tradition is called ”The Harrowing of Hell”.
The works depict the kiss of betrayal in Gethsemane (Matt.26:47-56). And the moment when Jesus finds his disciples sleeping, after he returns from his solitary prayers of anguish (Matt 26:46-36). However, as the viewer can observe the other of the two characters has the marks of nails having pierced through her hands and feet, so these situations must be happening after the crucifixion. The position of the characters is reversed from the original gospel. It is Christ who kisses Judas and it is Christ who is found sleeping.
The events are re-enacted or re-staged, in hell. Re-enacting the scenes alludes to a kind of narrative inversion. The re-staging of events-already-happened functions as a metaphor of reminiscence, thus recalling the personal narrative layer of my attempt at reconstructing memories of the events of my conversion, as hellish.
What I find interesting is that Judas died on the same day as Jesus. And what other place would there be for him to go than hell?
It is as if the characters are performing a dance, an inversion of the fateful events on Friday. This is before the world knew for certain, who the person they crucified was. On Sunday the truth is fully revealed.
But on Saturday, the monumental wheels of the story have turned over a critical point and all is silent. So, what now? ”What have I done?” Judas must think on Saturday more than ever. His torment and his confusion do not end in the throes of guilt and suicide. Was he not one of the last who died before the act of salvation? Would Christ not forgive him, like the others?
Full work details upon request.