Prophet Jonas (Detail ) 2015

Editor: We're looking at Saul Zanolari's digital sculpture, "Prophet Jonas (Detail)," created in 2015. The composition and the slightly exaggerated anatomy of the figure give the piece a larger-than-life, almost mythological feel. What do you make of Zanolari's approach? Curator: Mythological is a fine take, absolutely. This Jonas, perched between rock and something decidedly fishy, makes me think of that moment just after being spat out of the whale -or giant fish, as some prefer. There's this vulnerability, this awkwardness even. What happens *now*? You see it in the upturned gaze, don't you? Editor: Definitely! There’s almost a sense of him bracing for what’s next. The…fish…boot…is interesting, to say the least! Curator: Isn't it though? It’s as if the experience of being inside that beast is still clinging to him, literally shaping his present. He isn’t free of that voyage yet, not at all. In that sense it reminds me a bit of Dante in *The Inferno*--both in its weirdness and psychological rawness, like what the subconscious coughs up. What do you think the digital medium brings to that feeling? Editor: That's a great question. Maybe the crispness, the hyper-real quality of the rendering, amplifies the… oddity of the image? Makes it more striking? Curator: Perhaps! Or, conversely, does it distance us, give us a buffer from something truly horrifying? Makes you wonder, doesn't it? It's what great art *should* do I think. Editor: It definitely does. I'm not sure I would've caught all of that on my own, but the psychological angle is fascinating. Curator: It's like peering into someone's soul, isn't it?