New Saints

It started somewhere in 2003, 2004: I created my first Alien Saint. But in hindsight, I could even say it started long before that, at the moment I thought of a book title: 'Modern Saints for a modern time'. I was wondering how the actual lives of the saints of the early days of christianity had been. When you have a religious construct called sainthood and it applies to people, what kind of people do you need for that? And if it would be possible to become a saint in your own time, in the modern time for instance where everything is made into a commercial with a pop song. Maybe those saints are alive today, and they are walking the streets with a trolly filled with their possessions, drinking cheap beer and sleeping under the proverbial bridges. But as soon as you start with those images you are back at first square again. But it makes for a funs series of images nonetheless.

The other thing is this: in todays world all eyes go towards the future, a future that will always be better than the world we are living in today (in that respect there is little difference between capitalism and marxism or Christianity for that matter: in the future we are all dead and in heaven). But at the same time the world is filled with garbage, poison and we kill our environment. We could easily assume that the future will be worse.

The question I am asking myself is this: how can this aptitude for destruction and the ability to believe in saints be combined in one body, in one species so you like. Although I have to say that not all humans have to be alike in that respect. There are religions that do not carry the idea of an end of time in their ground work. Voudoun anyone?