Artist welcomes 'pornography' complaints about Auckland exhibition exploring religion, sexuality

Brazilian-Kiwi Gui Taccetti's work runs until the end of the week.

A new exhibition that investigates themes of religion and sexuality is on display in Auckland.

Inferno, created by Brazilian-Kiwi Gui Taccetti, explores the artist's upbringing in a religious family.

"It is a very personal journey that I had with anxiety and depression that was primarily triggered by a set of values that I was exposed to as a kid that really made me feel like I didn’t belong," he told 1 NEWS.

Gui says creating these pieces of art was like therapy for him - each scene playing with strong symbolism from his past and present.

"Inferno is a little bit of a mixed bag of memories, there's a lot I bring up that I just reference from my childhood, references to the way I grew up with my family," he said. "So for instance the horses are a reference to something that came from my grandparents.

"Being gay was just as bad as having sex with an animals."

Some of the pieces featured in the exhibition can be challenging, and Gui says not everyone will understand his motivation.

"For people that say it's pornographic, I actually take that as a compliment because I think pornography has a very powerful way of triggering an emotion and a commitment to what they're seeing. So if my work can relate in any way to that idea then I'm happy."

Inferno, held at the Hopetoun Alpha, runs until the end of the week.

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