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Easter pin-up



 

Some friends have created an Easter art installation in central Southend .  Pictures like this one can be found up and down the high street; in shops, attached to railings or, in this case, to a bike rack.  Each piece is creative, playful, provocative, sometimes downright offensive. 

Like this 'magazine'.  The cover features Christ on the cross with headlines including: Easter Pin Up!  Body to die for! Give your nails full impact. 

I love (loathe?) the juxtaposition of the inane celebrity and beauty topics magazines like this push on young women and the horror of the cross of Good Friday.  On the one hand, a sculpted, hairless, (for most women) unobtainable body with perfectly manicured nails; on the other, a broken, pierced, hairy and bloody naked body racked with pain.  It certainly puts things in perspective.

This magazine cover is deeply offensive to me, which is of course why it is so appropriate.  The crucifixion of Christ is deeply offensive.  Death is a horrendous intruder upon human experience; how much more so the death of the immortal Son of God.

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