I recently came across an artistic piece from modern artist,
Alex Rietveld, entitled, “Venus de Biomechanica.” It’s an interpretation of the
classic sculpture, “Venus de Milo.” You know, it’s the statue of a woman with
no arms.
Anyway, Rietveld’s approach for Venus offered a different interpretation
of the famous sculpture, probably suggesting the image-obsesses society in
which we live. This female form was armless, just like the classic work.
However, the more modern “add-ons” included what looked to me like a gas mask and
a machine gun arm strapped to the statue. And then there was some strange
looking headpiece, worn like a tiara, resembling, possibly some monitoring
device for the female’s electrode responses. It was far from the classic
sculpture we know today.
Indeed, the Venus de Milo has gotten quite a lot of
attention in popular culture. She’s been referenced by the likes of Miles Davis
and Chuck Berry in their music, as well as popping up in such television shows
as “The Simpsons” and “Twin Peaks.” I’ve even seen her as a kitchen magnet and
a carved bar of soap. Yep, Venus is everywhere.
And it’s no wonder. After all, she was originally regarded,
adored and even worshipped as Aphrodite, “the love goddess,” the epitome of all
that is feminine, graceful and beautiful. It should, then, come as no shock she’s
still influential here and now. Whether it’s her original form or
interpretations like “Venus de Biomechanica,” something is still not lost on
me: the impact of her arms, or rather, lack of them. I see how her beauty
standard has so overshadowed what her arms literally and figuratively
represent: power and ability.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love Venus; she’s still one of my
favorite sculptures. And, yes, I admit to being biased. Because of the filter
of eating disorder experience and awareness, I, perhaps, read something more
than just beauty or art. The missing arms, to me, represent a kind of
powerlessness, both emanating from and co-existing with her emphasized physical
beauty. It’s especially glaring in such an image driven culture. No matter what
we may espouse concerning intellect, character, kindness and all manner of
“inner beauty,” we still have rampant eating disorders, diets and plastic surgery
going on in our world. Seemingly, most of us want to be eternally young, beautiful,
thin and perfect.
I remember years ago, coming across a study in which a group
of children were given the choice between being overweight or losing their
limbs. Overwhelmingly, the majority of those children chose to lose their limbs
instead of enduring the stigma which comes from the dreaded “f” word in our
culture: “fat.”
Is that the message we want to communicate? Beauty at all
cost? Obtain beauty, to the exclusion of more important things in life? Beauty
needs to be achieved, even employing harmful methods?
And that leads me back, again, to “Venus de Biomechanica.” Whether
it’s the machine gun arm, the gas mask or that sci-fi looking headpiece, the message
seems to stress manipulating what is already beautiful in each of us, despite a
powerless result. But that doesn’t matter, apparently, because, after all, you
are considered beautiful because you conform to society’s definition of beauty.
And that’s all that counts, right?
I repeatedly reference scriptures on idolatry and image in
my writing and in my speaking engagements. I continue to see just how consumed
we are with that subject matter. God seems to think the issue is worth paying
attention to.
“Little children, keep yourselves
from idols. Amen.”
1 John 5:21
A statue is just a statue. In and of itself, it cannot do
anything positive for us.
“What profiteth the graven image that
the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that
the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols? Woe unto him that
saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it
is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst
of it.”
Habakkuk 2:18-19
It is a dumb idol, no matter how beautiful it may be.
If our hearts get caught up in it as representing something
“God-like,” however, then it becomes harmful to our souls. Let’s not forget a
pretty hefty commandment:
“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”
Exodus 20:3
God doesn’t give us this commandment because He wishes to
take away our fun. Instead, He knows the harm which comes from getting our
hopes pinned on something which will only fail and disappoint us, distracting
us from a real relationship with Him.
We give our strength and ourselves to something which will
one day vanish. One day, as wonderful as the “Venus de Milo” is, she will
crumble. One day, youth will fade. One day, our “permanent solutions” will fail
us.
Why, exactly, do we try to conform to something which is not God? When that conforming effort fails,
then what?
God has not called us to be crafted after a powerless image.
“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and
of love, and of a sound mind.”
2 Timothy 1:7
We are created in His Image.
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him;
male and female created he them.”
Genesis 1:27
Can we dare to live that
concept? Our decision could determine between the powerful and the powerless
result.
Leave the manufactured and the manipulated image alone!
Let’s be who God has created us to be! Let’s be armed with that!
Copyright © 2015 by Sheryle Cruse
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