Dina Goldstein – The Last Supper, East Van – Jesus

From the series GODS OF SUBURBIA, 2014

This piece is inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic, Last Supper, which was painted in the late 15^th century in Milan, Italy. My reenactment of history’s most famous dinner party is meant to portray the treatment of the most vulnerable by society. I have placed Jesus and his Apostles, a street gang, specifically in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. This is Canada’s poorest postal code and a place of chronic drug abuse, alcohol addiction and mental illness. Jesus and the Apostles consume the diet of street people: cheap packaged noodles, cheap beer and canned tuna, while Judas plots his betrayal of Jesus. In Vancouver, so much money has flowed into the Downtown Eastside, but it is still a place of violence, addiction and homelessness. Like Judas, who betrayed Jesus for money, many have benefitted from initiatives to help Vancouver’s poor, yet the poor still have nothing.

GODS OF SUBURBIA from 2014 is Dina Goldstein’s third large-scale project. The work is a visual analysis of religious faith within the context of the modern forces of technology, science, and secularism. Dina utilizes archetypes from within the collective unconscious, and from religious iconography, and places them into contemporary environments. The project challenges the viewer — religious or secular to embark on a journey of self-reflection as they contemplate the relevance of ancient ethics and morals in a society characterized by materialism and consumerism. Watch here the Making of and behind the scenes and this interview with Dina Goldstein about the series.