Heaven and Hell

'Heaven and Hell' is one of the first works in which Andres Serrano used real blood, thus shattering the cultural taboo that prohibits any public celebration of blood. By sheer coincidence, he began this work at precisely the moment when the mass media had begun to warn the public about the hazards of blood and other bodily fluids as a result of the discovery of HIV and AIDS. Here, Serrano explores the contrast between the love espoused by the Church and the cruelty inflicted in reality. He also addresses the clash between the Church's obsession with the 'Body and Blood of Christ' and its simultaneous negation of the pleasures of the flesh. By introducing the elements of nudity and blood into a seemingly religious scene, Serrano raises the question of the role of religion in controversial socio-political issues that plague contemporary society, thus adding a further element of provocation. But the truly radical aspect of Serrano's blood photographs goes far beyond these specific, historically based elements of cultural tension. More than anything else, the radical nature of this and other controversial images resides in their fundamental disruption of conventional understandings of the significance of blood in our own lives. It is the viewer, not the artist, who translates the blood in these works into a subversive symbol.