"If a body at times can be a work of art, does the same apply for its separate parts and secretions?
Within the surreal imagination of Danish digital creator Lea Brisell, that question certainly gets explored to the fullest. The inventive artist recently returned after a long hiatus with new work criticizing the ongoing World Cup in Qatar. It depicts a football stitched together from patches of hairy skin of different migrant workers, people who literally gave their lives whilst constructing the immense temples of sport worship in slave-like conditions. This work underlines the hypocrisy of a corrupt organization constantly promoting equality, whilst ignoring LGBTQ rights and the basic human cost that creating the biggest ‘show’ on earth has tallied. This sharp satire that marries the macabre with the whimsical can be found throughout the artist’s work, ranging here from an actual human heart substituting a social media one, a bright blue eye omelet and a used tampon rose.
If our bodies are our temples, Lea certainly focuses on the less glamorous elements of the corporeal. The realism of the work is at times astounding, when first experiencing her art I was often left wondering if it was image manipulation or a created physical prop I was looking at. Brisell’s background as an art director in advertising often shines through in these fleshy parodies, add a catchy slogan and a logo to her pink backgrounds and one might be confused in thinking that it’s a clever ad we’re looking at. But it’s the subject matters quickly make us realize this certainly isn’t the case, or it would have to be the bizarro world of marketing where the sold lies are forsaken for comically brutal honesty. Her work certainly deserves your many digital hearts or your real one, if you so desire…"
