JESUS # 43 - July 14th


"The Small Black Frame"
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Too bad they didn't have any photography back then. Although this one almost looks like one, it is one of those that make wonder about why Jesus looks the way he looks on images and not differently.

This is a motive that exists seven times in my collection. In some cases it almost looks like people gave used the same print to create framed images of their own (coming in the next couple of days).

It's an example of the perfect machine Christianity. Give away merchandise in order to reach a massive market share for a certain type of Jesus image. Not that it matters what Jesus looked like, to us the idea of the person is probably more important than his physical appearance anyway.

Who needs to know what Sokrates looked like? Or Shakespeare? Or Jesse James? None of them made as big as a visual icon as Jesus. You could now argue that they have not been of the same importance. But if Jesus was so important, why does he need a visual representation to remind people? Jesus has become a brand. And as soon as something becomes a well established brand, it has a tendency to both create a uniformity and then disinterest.

Why would I make a statement like that? Because I believe that as soon as you take the wonder out of something, people start to not care anymore. What would have happened if no one ever started to paint what they thought Jesus looked like? Would that have changed anything? What if there weren't the cross to "hang on to"?

There are numerous religions that work without idels like that and I'm not sure whether these religions have a prohibition on icons inscribed into their constitutions like we can find it in the Bible.

Man was like a kid: You tell me not to have icons? I'm gonna make some anyway!