Book of the Dead 2001

This is Arsen Savadov’s ‘Book of the Dead’. There’s a rawness to this piece that hits you right away. The colour palette is muted, almost drained, which adds to the feeling of decay. Savadov’s work often feels like a high-wire act; he's taking something incredibly unsettling and pushing it just far enough. The way the light catches the figure's skin, highlighting the stitches and exposed areas, it's almost sculptural. The texture is key here. The contrast between the smooth skin and the rough stitches creates a tension that’s hard to ignore. And that gash on the side - it's not just a detail, it's like a rupture, a point of entry into something darker. This is where Savadov’s work really shines. It’s not just about shock value, it’s about using the body as a landscape, a site of trauma and transformation. This reminds me a bit of Joel-Peter Witkin, but with a different sensibility. Where Witkin goes for the baroque, Savadov keeps it stark, almost clinical. It's this tension between the beautiful and the grotesque that makes ‘Book of the Dead’ so compelling. Art at its best invites us to confront the things we'd rather ignore, and Savadov does that with a brutal honesty.