ICONS

These paintings show simple emoji’s against a religious background. Icons in christian art depict saints or other biblical figures and always feature a specific hand gesture. These hand gestures shape the meaning and message of the icon.

These hand gestures are still used in a similar vain in today’s world. On Whatsapp or Instagram, we communicate using little hand emoji’s, which often overlap with these religious icon hand gestures.
Ultimately, these works reflect on how humanity seems to have a universal instinct to use hand gestures to communicate meaning, and how this evolves through the ages.