‘cross my heart and hope to die’
For the first of many collaborate projects on the Art and Contemporary Practices course we were sent a sentence at random from someone else in the year cohort. I received the phrase ‘cross my heart and hope to die’ and I instantly started to overthink what I was going to make and how I was going to approach the artwork.
Drawing on the religious connotations of the phrase given, I have decided to take inspiration from the Pope and the symbolism of the Holy Sea. As the phrase contains the word heart, it was obvious for me to choose the colour red as a starting point. I decided to look into the Pope and discovered that the Pope is famous for wearing red shoes.
Red has been deliberately chosen as the colour of the Pope’s shoes to be a direct representation of the sacrifice and loss of life Christians have given throughout the last two centuries whilst following in the steps of Jesus. The use of the Papal Seal and the Seal of the fisherman’s ring, which is seen as the authority of the pope himself, has been used to provide more symbolism to the religious origin of the phrase.
The use of colour and symbols within the artwork correspond well with the phrase ‘Cross my heart and hope to die’. It really made me think about religion and the symbolism attached to it over the last century. Through research it has been rumoured that the Pope’s shoes were designed and produced by Prada. The designer label Prada has been used an intentional joke trying to humourize the seriousness of the red shoes and its connotations to Christ and the Pope’s submission to the authority of Jesus.
I believe I have done sound research into the origin of the phrase and developed a coherent personal response to the task given. I feel that the subject matter and the humorous connotations I have drawn on provide the viewer with artwork that will provoke conversation and questions.