Christianity. 35 cents
71" X 84"
Gel transfer, graphite, paint, mixed media on canvas; monumental scroll format
In this work, Marina Orlova stages a collision between mass-media Christianity and mass-produced femininity. A Barbie doll—an icon of manufactured womanhood—is positioned in the pose of crucifixion atop a mid-century LIFE magazine cover depicting Christ on the cross. The gesture is blunt and precise: a secular idol replaces the sacred body, exposing how belief systems migrate from religion into consumer culture without losing their power to discipline, shame, or sanctify.
Orlova’s intervention destabilizes the visual authority of both images. The original magazine cover, once a vehicle of moral consensus, is rendered vulnerable—creased, stained, and overwritten—while Barbie’s smooth, ahistorical body becomes the site of sacrifice. The cruciform composition implicates the female body as a modern martyr, suspended between devotion and consumption, desire and punishment. The work suggests that contemporary womanhood is not merely shaped by capitalism but ritually upheld by it.
