FUNDAMENTALIST SEDUCTION

Fundamentalist Seduction interrogates the cyclical nature of religious appropriation as a tool of political control. This installation exposes the direct lineage between historical manipulation and contemporary extremism through an architectural installation that references the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a site whose declaration as Christ's burial place was less divine revelation than calculated imperial strategy, designed to consolidate Christian authority within a crumbling Roman Empire.

The central figure represents an investigation into the performance of false sanctity. Rendered in gold to invoke traditional religious imagery while simultaneously evoking the corrupting influence of material wealth, bearing a flat silver halo that deliberately lacks depth, signaling the hollow nature of contemporary claims to divine authority.

This figure executes a precise manipulation, appearing to suffer in order to draw the viewer's sympathy, while simultaneously and ostensibly, accidentally, emphasizing provocative bodily forms that contradict the sacred context. This calculated contradiction is an intentional one mirroring how modern Christian fundamentalist movements operate, wrapping divisive political ideologies in pseudo-religious rhetoric to make palatable what should rightfully be rejected.

Fundamentalist Seduction exposes the seductive machinery of extremism, revealing how movements exploit genuine spiritual longing to advance agendas that fundamentally betray both Christian teaching and ethical standards. This work demonstrates that the corruption of sacred symbols for political gain is not new, it is a pattern as old as nationalism itself.