Truth and Falsehood: the distortion of the meaning of the words in the written and spoken language
(The abuse of religious texts)
© Ivan Cangelosi, 2017
80X80 cm
Ink on paper
Technique – Handwriting of the Gospel According to Matthew (Italian).
The issue of the affirmation of the truth and the use of lies, in Policy as well as in the relationships between people, is the subject of philosophical investigation since the ancient Greeks. If, for example, for the German Jewish philosopher Hanna Arendt (1906-1975) “the truth has never been counted among the political virtues, and lies have always been regarded as justifiable tools in political affairs” (H. Arendt, Lying in Politics: Reflections on The Pentagon Papers), two centuries before, Immanuel Kant stated that “the truth is an unconditional obligation in front of the whole humanity, while the lie is a ruination for the whole society and its own foundation: those who lie abolish the society “
The decision of telling the truth or of lying, is always a moral choice. Those who lie manipulate reality, abuse language, making an improper and instrumental use of words; in other terms, and in the words of Immanuel Kant, who lies undermines society at its foundations, threatening peaceful coexistence between people.
About the painting– This work has only a symbolic meaning. It has been realized through a combination of semantic and asemantic (a writing that hasn’t a meaning). The semantic part of the work regards the text of the Gospel According to Matthew and constitutes the background in black of the work. The asemantic part instead, is represented by a creative writing, a convoluted and instinctive “movement” of the silver color, which gives birth to a subject which depicts Christ on the cross.
In the context of the above-mentioned issue (Truth / Lie), the semantic writing, in this case the text of the Gospel According to Matthew, is “the truth”. The result of its manipulation and exploitation is the deformation of the semantic text into a writing, if you want an attractive one, but which has no meaning and, ultimately, which propagates a false message.