Andres Serrano
[Artist, b. 1950, New York, lives in New York.]
There’s nothing wrong with provocative art work: I even look forward to the day when I can take pictures which will disturb even me.
I have always felt that my work is religious, not sacrilegious. I would say that there are many individuals in the Church who appreciate it and who do not have a problem with it. The best place for Piss Christ is in a church.
... I just photographed a man who can suck his own penis. The way he twisted his body reminded me of a Francis Bacon painting. He rolled on his back and threw his legs up in a way that does not register as a natural contortion. Yet it is a natural position if you want to put your mouth around your own dick.
I’ve always felt that I wanted my work to be more or less open to interpretation and so even though some of the work has got people riled up, my attitude has always been I didn’t mean to offend you but if I did, fuck it, I’m not going to apologize.
I would not have a problem being called a voyeur. We all vacillate between being spectators and participants in the arena of life. It’s natural to want to see, and to be curious. We are not bad people because of that.
I am an artist first and a photographer second. My “medium” is the world of ideas that I seek to present in a visually cohesive fashion. I think of myself as a conceptualist with a camera. In other words, I like to take the pictures in my head that may or may not have anything to do with photography.
An artist is nothing without his or her obsessions, and I have mine. One of the things that always bothered me was the fundamentalist labeling of my work as “anti-Christian bigotry.” As a former Catholic, and as someone who even today is not opposed to being called a Christian, I felt I had every right to use the symbols of the Church and resented being told not to.
I say things, but I say them indirectly. At the same time, I try to make my images as direct as possible.
