Salvaged Saints: Michael Landy's Martyrs Invade UK's National Gallery

THE GUARDIAN
By Adrian Searle

Mechanical martyrs ... Michael Landy's Saints Alive exhibition
at the National Gallery, London. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

UNITED KINGDOM---From Saint Lucy plucking out her eyes to Saint Apollonia bashing in her teeth, Michael Landy's mechanical martyrs are a destructive delight. The Christian saints had a hard time of it, but they were pretty stoical about their grisly martyrdoms. Saint Peter, the 13th-century friar from Verona, was done to death on the road, stabbed after having his head cleaved open with an axe. The other two panels depict Saint Lucy, who plucked out her own eyes and offered them to an unwanted suitor; and the Archangel Saint Michael, whose task was to weigh the souls of the dead. Slaying demons and summoning the deceased on judgment day were also part of his remit. [link]