Original artwork description:

Icon looks at how the cult of social media has taken over the popular consciousness and compares it to the role of religion in the past. The piece is similar in style to catholic icon painting. Surrounding religious figures in gold and full of symbolism to sell the religious ideals. This piece depicts a Saint, the almost perfect human according to Catholicism. These figures in history have normally suffered for their sainthood in the similar way that personal suffering is put online to gain favour/followers. He holds up his right hand as a saint would have done to show the visible trace of his suffering however he no longer has a left hand that has been replaced by a phone his new way of conveying his saintliness. The figure has cut out his eyes and they now appear in the top right and bottom left of the painting lifeless and flat. They are no longer needed in the modern world as the figure has his phone to record what he chooses to see. He no longer has a mouth as again speech is irre

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