Alden Wallace

In some interpretations of the Qur’an, the prophet Mohammed says that all men who enter heaven will be rewarded with 72 virgins, or houri. They are of modest gaze, all of the same age (prepubescent with budding swelling breasts), of standard height (90 feet tall, as are all men in heaven according to the Qur’an), weight and breast size. They will be non-menstruating, non-urinating, non defecating; hairless, and transparent to the marrow of their bones.

Imagine the joy of the jihadist who can claim his prize early. By giving up his own life for Allah, he will receive 72 of these translucent beings. Imagine his thrill with all that purity to defile.

But what of the virgins? In some versions of the Qur’an, it is the burqa-covered women, whose lives are spent shrouded in opaque suppression, who become the Virgins. Their prize in paradise is living the rest of eternity in servitude, purely for the pleasure of their man, finally translucent, almost invisible.

Materials: 72 incandescent lightbulbs, plywood, porcelain lamp bases, copper wiring, oxygen and acetylene gas mixture.

72 Virgins or the anti-climactic realization that there is no place like heaven
C-Print 96

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