Farfur the Martyr
Peng Hung-Chih
彭弘智
Production date
2008
Object Detail
Media
stainless steel
Measurements
213 x 200 x 180 cm
Notes
The implied contrast in Peng’s thinking between light and dark, juxtaposing gentle irony with savage satire, is seen most dramatically in Farfur the Martyr (2008), a stainless-steel sculpture of a Mickey Mouse-like figure in the position of a medieval crucified Christ. In a controversial appropriation of religious iconography, the figure stands in a pool shaped like a Star of David, and spouts jets of water from eyes and nipples in transgressive mimicry of the blood that flowed from Christ’s wounds. Viewers encountering this work might assume that it is a critique of the commercialisation of religion, or the reach of American popular culture across the globe. In fact, the work represents Farfur, an actor in an animal costume who was the ‘host’ of a television show for children broadcast by Hamas, the fundamentalist Palestinian organisation. The final shocking episode of the series calls for jihad, after Farfur is murdered by an Israeli agent. By appropriating a cartoon-like animal figure from a children’s TV show that incited hatred, and then attaching him to the martyred Christ, Peng Hung-Chih satirises religious extremism. While this particular work is focused on the Middle East, the totality of Peng Hung-Chih’s oeuvre reveals his distaste for the use of religion as a dividing force in the world.
Accession number
2009.045