Liquid Jesus
Caroline Achaintre, 2004
Hand-tufted wool · 240 × 180 cm
Courtesy of the Chandris Collection, displayed at The Met Hotel, Thessaloniki
Description:
Liquid Jesus is a textile painting in disguise—an intense, large-scale hand-tufted wool work that fuses the physical softness of craft with the emotional weight of gothic ritual. At first glance, its vibrant form appears abstract: a wild explosion of color, fur-like texture, and central red-pink bloom. Yet, from a distance, a ghostly mask-like face emerges—almost ceremonial, maybe sacred, maybe grotesque.
The piece exists at the crossroads of spiritual symbolism and pop-goth subculture, where melting forms and bleeding color speak more about emotional states than doctrinal imagery. The title Liquid Jesus evokes both reverence and distortion—suggesting a figure or presence that’s no longer solid, but unstable, untouchable, or even vanishing.
Achaintre, known for combining traditional textile craft with punk energy, here uses wool as both image and object. It’s messy and sensual, soft and ominous. The texture invites you closer, while the image keeps you questioning. Like a ritual mask or a vision during trance, Liquid Jesus is a portal more than a picture.
Interpretive Highlights
Ritual meets rebellion: The work pulls from carnival traditions, expressionism, and death-metal iconography, but transforms them through wool and tenderness.
Icon reimagined: The title invites viewers to project meaning—Is it a deity? A wound? A hallucination? Its ambiguity is its power.
Craft as confrontation: Inverting the domestic connotation of wool, Achaintre makes the material wild, eerie, and confrontational.