More interesting takes on the buriel of Jesus

"Pieta" by Elizabeth Ohlson Wallin, 1998


The "Jesus" in this picture was a gay man, who was about to die of AIDS. The artist wanted him to pick his Pieta. He chose a female leather bar employee, well known in Stockholm for mothering gay man. They posed at the door of the AIDS ward of a Stockholm hospital.

The man wanted people to remember him after his death - but his "Jesus" experienced his own personal resurrection. Shortly after the photo shoot, he began taking the new Aids drug cocktail. A decade later, Ohlson Wallin could proclaim "Jesus is alive!" And the AIDS ward no longer exists.

Information gleaned from Kittredge Cherry, 'Art that Dares. Gay Jesus, Woman Christ and More' Androgyne press, Berkeley CA, 2007.

Two pictures - two world views

Consider these two pictures. The one, the well known Pieta by Michaelangelo. The other, "Pieta" from Ecce Homo, by Elizabeth Ohlson Wallin (1998). The story of the photo piece is recorded in Kitt Cherry's Art that Dares, (Androgyne press, Berkeley CA, 2007, p.76):

The artist chose a number of "Jesus" figures and each "Jesus" was allowed to pick the scene in Jesus' life he wanted to play for himself. A gay man, who was dying of AIDS, chose the Pieta. He also picked who would play his grieving mother, and he chose a female fellow employee at the leather bar, who was well known for "mothering" gay men. The man playing "Jesus" said he hoped that people would remember him in the picture after he was dead, and the shoot was done at the door of the AIDS ward in a Stockholm hospital.

The extraordinary thing is, that the man who played "Jesus" in this picture experienced his own personal resurrection, because soon after taking the picture, he started taking anti-retrovirals. "Jesus is still alive!" said Ohlson Wallin, a decade later. And today, the AIDS ward no longer exists. Furthermore, in terms of the human species, AIDS is no longer a disease associated -almost exclusively as it was then - with gay men.