L A R A   N I C K E L

La Bocca della Verità (The Mouth of Truth) is an ancient Roman, disc-shaped sculpture most likely representing the face of Oceanus (the exact meaning and function of the sculpture is unknown). During the Middle Ages, the freshly unearthed marble face was randomly placed on top of a Corinthian column fragment and given a completely made up myth. Medieval legend states: if you put your hand inside the mouth of the sculpture and tell a lie, the sculpture will bite your hand off. To this day, tourists still wait in line to pose for photos with their hand inside the sculpture’s mouth, buy souvenirs representing the sculpture’s message of purity, and even have their fortunes read by coin slot machines fashioned after La Bocca della Verità’s face.

This painting-installation is of a life-sized, realistically-rendered painting of La Bocca della Verità’s face and of the Corinthian column it sits upon. The mouth of the painting has been slit open with a blade and visitors are invited to place their fingers inside the mouth of the painting. Over time, through the act of touching the canvas, the painting will become dirty/frayed/damaged/altered — just like the actual La Bocca della Verità sculpture.
 

Conceptually, both the sculpture and the painting piece are about the misunderstanding of ancient cultures and objects; how misconception can still carry power through the new meaning assigned to these objects throughout the course of history; commentary on the power of myth making — how meaning is made and can be reconstructed over and over again; art and tourism and that rare phenomenon where visitors are allowed to physically interact with historical and art objects; the even rarer acceptance and encouragement of the alteration of art objects through physical touch; and, last but not least, the discouragement of lying through mysterious threats of ancient violence!