Our Lady of the Flowers of Evil

Jonah Samson‘s new body of work, Our Lady of the Flowers of Evil, draws in the viewer at the same time as he or she is repelled by the revelation of the extreme violence that shows up as a supporting image within each work. There is the initial shock of experience in seeing the violence. Yet, quite quickly, the primordial layer is responded to and restrained by the opposing quiet layer of flowers, creating a storm of difference within the composition. The chaotic violent scene is contained, suppressing the disorder of violence.

These photographs vibrate with the opposing images of violence and creation. Within the process of creation, there is violence, for in order for there to be anything at all, there has to be a struggle, a tragic, primordial violence—the violence of difference. It is only in the struggle of the difference within us that the notion of identity arises.