Philip Clairmont

Philip Clairmont’s crucifixion makes no concessions to the pieties of the subject or the sensitivities of the viewer. Christ’s mutilated and disintegrating body hangs limply from the cross, a strung-up slab of decaying meat. Clairmont’s high-octane, nerve-jangling style works to torment Christ and those viewers sympathetic to his plight. The depiction of Christ with the lower body of a woman or an hermaphrodite drives the final nail into this sacrilegious version of the crucifixion. This is a darkly comic variant on the Exquisite Corpse game Clairmont played with fellow Expressionist Tony Fomison.