We huddle over our iPhone screens like the pious do over prayer candles and check our messages with a religious fervor. Our collective worship of technology was the starting point for Carlo Fantin’s latest body of paper-cut works. The artist infuses Catholic iconography with designs and logos familiar to social media users, poking fun at contemporary society’s devotion to Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Fantin creates his imagery through a subtractive process, carving away negative space to create web-like textures that evoke the stained glass windows in a cathedral. In one piece, a newly pregnant Virgin Mary talks to God via text. In another, she snaps a selfie with Baby Jesus in her lap. Through humor, Fantin makes us examine our 21st-century obsessions and habits.
