April 15, 2022
From Fort Works Art:
“Fort Works Art is pleased to announce “I AM, Pain. Ink. Art.” an online art performance by Fort Worth artist Bernardo Vallarino on Good Friday, April 15, 2022. This performance will be a closed event that will be available for viewing online. The live stream will be available on 3 Facebook Pages: Fort Works Art’s, David Alcantar’s, and Bernardo Vallarino’s art page. ‘I AM’ is in collaboration with tattoo artist David Alcantar, and features subject matter for Vallerino’s new body of work ‘The Butterfly Case’.
‘I AM’ will be a monochromatic tattoo of a pair of butterfly wings (swallow tail) separated by a “T” pin, a symbol widely used in Vallarino’s new series “The Butterfly Case”. The 9 x 12” back tattoo is expected to take approximately 6-8 hours of continuous tattooing by artist David Alcantar during a private event on Good Friday 2022. This date was intentionally chosen to connect the tattoo with the Christian belief of sacrifice and sin absolution observed on that solemn day. By enduring hours of pain, Vallarino is referencing flagellation, a Catholic practice of enduring physical pain or discomfort as means of cleansing sin. “It is important to point out that pain and bloodletting as a form of purification is part of other religious and spiritual rituals” says Vallarino. “I chose to engrave my skin with the butterfly symbol to acknowledge and somehow take responsibility, “cleaning my sins,” of my own short comings of the topics I address in The Butterfly Case, which are social apathy, racism, classism, and elements of cultural appropriation.” Alcantar’s tattoo expertise and fine arts skills are crucial to this performance, not to mention the significant complementary relationship between this performance and his ongoing project about art and tattooing called “Skin in the Game”. During the process of this performance, a limited number of prints will be taken directly from the artist’s back as a means of record keeping and remembrance of the performance beyond the image on his skin.”
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