As a child, Sebastian ErraZuriz lived in London while his father was getting his PhD in art. A visit to the National Gallery was a weekend tradition, where his father would always stop in front of the painting of Saint Sebastian and tell Sebastian that this was his personal saint. The artist remembers the image making a strong impression on him, due to the realism of the bleeding wounds and his story: Saint Sebastian was a Christian saint who is said to have been killed during the Roman emperor Diocletian’s persecution of Christians. He is commonly depicted in art and literature tied to a post or tree, shot with arrows for following his beliefs.

The story says that after being rescued and healed by Irene of Rome, Saint Sebastian could not resist criticizing the emperor, and as a result was clubbed to death. In memory of the painting, Sebastian ErraZuriz teamed up with his friend, artist Mila Geisler, to create a self-portrait that would represent him ironically as the “poor suffering martyr,” having to put up with the constant criticism of those who disapprove of his own works of religious criticism. The painting comes with a religious bench, candleholder, and a donation box to help fund new religious artwork

Part of the religious series, the Gulliver sculpture is constructed appropriating a religious figure from the beginning of the century who depicts the death of Jesus Christ. The artist adds a series of miniature ropes to preexisting figure that tie the figure down similar to the illustrations in the children’s book Gulliver’s Travels.

With the help of some small Roman figurines that appear to be tying these ropes to the sleeping giant, the sculpture becomes a blurred line between a sacred religious figure with infinite powers and a fantasy character from a fairytale book. The sculpture questions the difference between the fairytale character and the religious one.