Action 125 by Reza Aramesh

In an unsettling and jarring moment at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge yesterday, I was suddenly confronted by someone lying on a platform of bricks in what appeared to be a piece of performance art. 

It was in fact a hyper-realistic statue, carved out of wood, treated, and then painted. Even after you realise it's a statue, there is still a sense of invading someone's space when you get up close.

This contemporary piece by Iranian artist Reza Aramesh is juxtaposed with a statue of Saint Sebastian in the background, made in the 1530s by Renaissance artist Alonso Berruguete.

The overall effect is disconcertingly powerful.

The Fitzwilliam Museum says of these two pieces  ( https://fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/news/sensualvirtual-two-coloured-sculptures )* :

' We have a new juxtaposing display in the Octagon Gallery which features two hyperreal male figures: St Sebastian (1530s) by Renaissance artist Alonso Berruguete and Action 125 (2011) by contemporary artist Reza Aramesh. Although sculpted nearly 500 years apart, the materials, scale and the idealization of the male body are similar. Both sculptors have focused on pain and suffering, defiance and martyrdom...

We are delighted to have these two extraordinary and powerful masterpieces of coloured, unnervingly naturalistic sculpture on loan... Both mesmerisingly beautiful but gritty sculptures focus on the challenging subject-matter of martyrdom and subjugation. We hope that visitors will find the juxtaposition exceptionally relevant as we continue to grapple with the C-19 pandemic and violent protest and suppression across the globe.

Berruguete’s recently discovered and conserved St Sebastian is a masterpiece by one of the most talented artists of Renaissance Spain. The statue portrays a well-known story, that of St Sebastian and was made to inspire popular religious devotion. However, church commentators at the time worried that the realistic nudity would cause inappropriate desire. In contrast Action 125 is a contemporary secular subject. Its subtitle reveals it to be a Muslim Iraqi prisoner of war captured by invading American forces in Tikrit, Northern Iraq, on 14 April 2003. The sculpture was made as part of a larger series of nine sculptures which each represent an act of subjugation. Aramesh’s aim is to "create a dialogue between icons of European art history and images of contemporary political conflicts." '

*Refers to when the two pieces were previously displayed in a different setting