David / Self-Portrait 11

David and courage
It takes courage to go up against a party that seems much bigger and more powerful than yourself. In the well-known Bible story of David and Goliath, David is the combative underdog who takes on the giant and conquers. Everyone always wants to be the David and that is one of the reasons that many artists have depicted precisely him.

Measuring heroism
Michelangelo’s five-meter-high marble David is for me undisputedly the most famous David. In Milan I bought a plaster part copy of the original: the head of David. I wanted to attempt to measure up to heroism. Therefore, I covered David’s head with silicone casts of my own face. What at first appears to be a pockmarked mask is a collage of numerous full-size versions of my face. Because of the difference in scale, it is now clear that Michelangelo himself transformed his David into a giant.