Alessandro Bavari's "Sodom and Gomorrah"

When looking over several of the links listed in the ART 408 blog, I came across Alessandro Bavari, and Italian born artist who works mainly with photomontages. Bavari's work is an intricate collage of photos taken of people, animals, landscapes, and other subjects that result in surreal and fascinating images that will leave the viewer awestruck. His subject matter is also strongly influenced by indo-european myths and allegories as well as 14th and 15th century artists. 

"Sodom and Gomorrah" is an ongoing project of Bavari's that visually depicts the legendary damned cities. As Bavari writes on his website, "I have imagined these two cities as a kind of amusement park for visionaries, where my gaze is neither accusing nor benevolent, but simply amused and curious, open to taking in as much as possible." His interpretation of the cities is simply fascinating, with images that are as shocking and grotesque as the written descriptions of the town from the Bible and other texts. Several of the images in fact depict excerpts from the book of Genesis, such as the town oracle who predicts the onset chaos that would come from the city being damned, which is seen above. Or the two angels who come to stay as guests in Lot's home, as pictured below. 

Aside from the stunning visual imagery in "Sodom and Gomorrah" one must also take note of the complexity and detail within each image. Every image is huge in size and composed of hundreds of other images each intricately placed into the frame. It's almost as if each image is a puzzle in which one would have to stare at for several minutes in order to see every detail and separate images within it. 

To conclude, Alessandro Bavari's "Sodom and Gomorrah" is a visual masterpiece that brilliantly depicts one of culture's most legendary myths. His attention to detail and exquisite photomontaging creates images that are shocking, surreal, and will stay in the viewer's mind for days on end.