Feels Good 2018

Jason Limon's image, "Feels Good", presents us with a collection of symbols that speak to pleasure, sin and desire. These objects invite us to consider the complex relationship between personal gratification and morality in contemporary culture. Limon, an American artist of the late 20th and early 21st century, creates meaning through a careful arrangement of visual and cultural codes. We see money, makeup, alcohol, and gambling represented alongside a Holy Bible and the word "tempt." The objects are placed like the individual panels of a medieval altarpiece. The composition invites reflection on the tension between earthly delights and spiritual values, a theme deeply embedded in the Western cultural tradition. Is Limon critiquing the commercialization of desire? Or is he simply presenting the viewer with the range of choices on offer in the modern world? To fully understand such images, we as historians, turn to sources of cultural context, such as advertising, literature, and religious texts, to reveal the social forces that shape artistic production and reception. The meaning of art lies not just in the object itself, but in the rich tapestry of its social and institutional history.