“Whenever you let go of something, you are scared only because your mind can measure what you’ll lose, but what you cannot see is what you’ll gain.” – Kyle Cease
Combining imagery from the dark histories of Berlin, ‘Protect Me from What I Want’ is a striking exploration of how pain and suffering can lead to a liberation of the self. Desire and prohibition, at first, are at odds with each other, yet finally emerge as dual aspects of the courageous act of finding our human spirit and the ‘letting go’ of old identities.
The hyper-realistic representation of the Berlin Cathedral provides a backdrop of supreme artistic achievement, a building destroyed in the Second World War, then reconstructed. Like the building, the figure of Woman is adorned with a burlesque outfit drawn from the heady days of the Weimar Republic, a time in history cut short by the eruption of war, symbolized here with the gas mask. The gaffer tape marks the play of arousal and discomfort on the body, with its associations with the modern subcultures of Berlin.
This dark and beautiful piece is a unique vision among the works of Maggie José that explores recurring themes of architecture, history and Woman’s identity.
Model credit: AutopsyroticaArt
