Faviola Torres

“7 Deadly Sins”

This exhibition centers around the exploration of the seven deadly sins: pride, envy, wrath, sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust, in modern society. Put together, these works illustrate how the seven deadly sins can be viewed in modern society, touching on subjects like materialism, substance abuse, social media, etc. 

My initial idea to work with the seven deadly sins aroused from my interest in the 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy by Italian writer Dante Alighieri. From the beginning, I wanted to work with mixed media, especially photography and digital art, which I had never worked with before. I was further inspired to pursue this vision by using inspiration from one of my favorite artists Cindy Sherman whose works consist of photographic self-portraits using color films, costume, lighting, and facial expressions. In the process of making my artworks, I found myself taking inspiration from the Neo-Expressionist art movement, including the scribble techniques from artists like Basquiat.

In modern society, teenagers are blocking the reality of their environment through technology. From self-esteem issues and substance abuse to fictional ideals of love and materialistic values, teenagers are being exposed to these issues in an unhealthy way, including how technology is being incorporated into our daily lives. What I hope to achieve with this exhibition is to demonstrate how it takes hell’s 7 deadly sins to truly understand how negatively impactful daily struggles and what people consider “superficial” issues can be in one’s life. 

All of the pieces in my exhibition are digital pieces that have been printed to size. This use of digital media was intentional. Modern society is composed of humans buried in their electronics, even more now given that the global COVID-19 pandemic has limited us to work and communicate all at home through screens. This led to the reliability of technology increasing as people go about their daily lives. I found myself not only realizing how one relies heavily on their electronics and the media but how blinded we are to the problem that it’s causing and the social issues that are being triggered and concealed. 

In the beginning, I wanted the pieces to find where they belonged rather than placing them in a designated order where the narrative was forced in a way. When completing all my artworks, I set them up in various orders such as in the order of deadly sins and even by the level of hell. Finally, I decided to place the works in a type of mirroring effect. It starts with “Too Proud” which is a double photography self-portrait that touches upon the reality of one’s inner conflict. This was chosen as the first piece of my exhibition because it breaks the glass of fantasy into reality as one sees themselves in the mirror as their true self but portrays a prideful person. The following piece, “Like Every Other”, depicts the negative perception that the media has on beauty, leading someone to abuse resources to seem perfect. The third piece, “Wrong Doings'', represents the loss of self-control through the feeling of anger. Then, in the middle of the exhibitions, “Doubt in Slumber.” The chaos around the subject represents not only the rest of the sins but also how people place a front with words but don’t decide on acting upon them. The following piece, “Golden Ego”, mirrors the significance of “Wrong Doings'' as it touches upon self-control through the value of material objects which begin to define one’s status in society. The fifth piece, “The Drug of Glucose”, mirrors the meaning of “Like Every Other”, as glucose here represents how one type of substance like sugar, introduced in one’s childhood, can be led to substance abuse as it will take over someone’s body. Lastly, pride is mirroring lust, which is placed in the last title “Long for Desire.” Love is the remedy of pride, but due to the superficial views on love, it is often deceived by lust for desire. 

The goal of the exhibition is to have the audience view how the 7 deadly sins can be seen in modern-day society and find ways to relate to it as it touches upon at least one issue in which we all have experienced.