Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Painting

Created In Blood!
Vincent Castiglia Spotlight

via Beautiful Decay

For the surrealist painter Vincent Castiglia, his “work is literally a blood sacrifice on the altar of art;” using up to 30 vials of his own blood for his darkly sprawling paintings, he hopes to imbue his richly philosophical work with his own living tissue. The artist’s blood shares the same iron oxide pigment as many commercial paints, lending each image its dark rusty tone and heightening the drama of Castiglia’s macabre scenes.

112

For this blood artist, the unusual medium works in service of larger themes. In extracting blood from his own body, sometimes 15 vials at a time (less than a blood donation), he allows the literal life-giving substance to more deeply examine fertile powers of mankind. With the careful painting of milk-filled breasts and deliberate vaginal imagery, Castiglia celebrates the allegorical implications of motherhood and childbirth. A female figure rises from the earth, howling like the ancient Greek goddess Gaia, who birthed the entire world.

539_1_1a_CASTIGLIA_EXILE_

The idea of human creative potential becomes complicated with the dark suggestion of our mortality. A mother nurses from a wheelchair, her skeletal legs and decaying infant painted in dried blood, reminding viewers that with life comes inevitable ruin. Laid upon a cross, a woman bears the suffering of Jesus, her abdomen radiating light while her vulva appears to be ominously stitched shut.
The introduction of religious imagery helps resolve the tension between death and birth. Borrowing shapes and floral imagery from early Christian painting, Castiglia implies a connection between death and eternal life. In sacrificing his own blood, the artist fills not a Holy Grail but a canvas, elegantly preserving his own flesh for our consideration.

Castiglia-Throne-of-Stone

slide_255483_1616212_free

slide_255483_1616213_free

slide_255483_1616214_free

slide_255483_1616216_free

slide_255483_1616217_free

slide_255483_1616220_free

tumblr_lyadhrFRUp1rnfyq0o1_500

tumblr_mduquuJUJL1rshof6o1_500

tumblr_mduquuJUJL1rshof6o2_1280

tumblr_mhyfleOnLF1s0ky4fo2_500

tumblr_mhyfleOnLF1s0ky4fo3_500

tumblr_mv0sw7JNRv1qcflzio3_r1_500

Vincent_Castiglia_Requiem-Full-Painting-100-res

Written By

Relapse DF 92123
Sentient 51423

You May Also Like

Art

via Dazed DigitalText & Photos by Tony Farfalla The heat from the enormous burning pentagram is nearly unbearable as I move closer to the...

80s Hardcore

When I look at old photos of the punk scene, a really good feeling comes over me. Maybe because I know I’m looking at...

Photography

Shaolin Kung Fu, developed in China beginning in 495AD, has infiltrated popular culture in the West. Depending on your age, you might be familiar...

Art

For those who are  unfamiliar with the sanguine-soaked artwork of Vincent Castiglia, now is your time to take note and hold your breath before...

Copyright © 2020 CVLT Nation.