Naturally, the response to Kunkle's work has been defined by a large amount of backlash, with some religious leaders speaking out against the collection. "The Passion of Kim Kardashian," which shows the reality star as the face of humanity's greatest goddesses collaged in a series of vibrant, psychedelic effigies, is in actuality depicting an element of human fascination as old as art itself — celebrity worship.
"It's deplorable. It's sacrilegious, irrelevant, and disrespectful ... it's idol worship," Pastor Reggie Stutzman, only one of the religious leaders enraged by the collection, told the New York Daily News. Kunkle just maintains that Kardashian is "the patron saint of pop culture."
Kardashian herself has had no say in this presentation as a devi as well as a diva. The decision was all Kunkle's, and she's far from the first artist to appropriate celebrity images to deliver a message.
Other artists have been more active in drawing similarities between themselves and deities: Beyoncé's "Mine" video drew strong links between her and the Virgin Mary.The appropriation of religious, historical and mythological symbols extends back centuries: Classical poets like Edmund Spenser loved to assert the English were the next generation of the Roman Empire due to King Arthur being the descendant of Emperor Brutus. He also allegorized Queen Elizabeth as a divine, mythical faerie. Portraitists of antiquity have often sought to portray their subjects as near to divine, even when painting themselves. What Kunkle is doing is not far removed from this classic tradition, and her logic at least makes sense.
"She's crazy bodacious and has the nose job of an angel," Kunkle told VICE. "I don't know if she's omniscient, but no one can deny she's not omnipresent. Kim floats above us all, even the deniers and the haters. We have accepted her into our lives via television screens, memes and Instagram feeds.
"If Jay Z is the father and Yeezus is the son, then she is the ever-present holy ghost of pop culture." portrait
