In the video “Me and My Arrows” the artist performs almost naked, at minus 8° C, an “iconographically correct” Saint Sebastian. The posture is known: the undressed body fastened to a tree, angelic, impassive face, towers and buildings in the back suggesting an Italian Renaissance urban vista.

However, there is an ironical twist here: the body is “punished” not by arrows, but by harmless, soft paint-balls. A gesture which undermines with a single move both established Renaissance’s representational clichés and Modernism’s canonical “action painting”. And there is also a comment on the medium itself: instead of painting, the absurd story is told via a clip-like edited digital video, with a captivating electro-acoustic sound-track (by Gilles Dumont).

The work is therefore a critical reflection not on martyrdom and hagiography, but rather on the status of the image and art history in general. (Horea Avram, curator, Montreal)