The Preacher stages a scene of religious history painting and hands it over to a chorus of grotesque creatures. At the centre, a red, semi-naked figure points to the sky, mouth open mid-sermon, crowned by a tongue of fire. Around it one recognises the signs of a nebulous iconography: the crown, the colossal hammer, the staffs tipped with symbols that serve as banners. Below, another faceless figure stoops under the weight of a beam the preacher never touches. That distance, between the one who declaims and the one who bears the load, organises the painting. The Baroque composition, inherited from the same tradition that evangelisation brought as an instrument of conquest, is occupied by monsters of pop culture. The rite endures; only its officiants change, and it turns into spectacle and pose.
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