Just like most of us street art fans, I enjoy a good mural. One that captures my attention, makes me want to observe the image for a while, and maybe even has some message or a story to tell. Occasionally I find an image, where there obviously is a message, but it keeps me puzzled for a while before I figure it out.... or in cases, like with this mural, it never actually becomes clear.
Trying to Plug In
The mural shows a male figure holding an electric plug. In an of itself, it's nothing out of the ordinary. What is much weirder, is the entire upper third of the image, showing a bird nesting on his head. In fact, if it wasn't for the bird, one would mistake the nest for a crown of thorns, symbolizing Jesus Christ. However, since wearing a bird's nest on his head is outside the norm even for religious characters, we can probably exclude this explanation (for now! Though inadvertently we'll revisit that idea soon enough.)
Light up the World!
Another interesting part here is the part of the mural painted on the wall of a much lower building adjacent to the main one, showing a lit up globe with an electric cable leading through the wall to the plug the guy is holding. Now the symbolism seems to become obvious, and most of us would interpret this as bringing light to our world, or something along those lines. However, the appliance is clearly not plugged in, so it should not even work, should it? Maybe this is precisely the point...
Energy out of Water Vapor
Maybe the picture's message is hidden right here: What makes the globe light up is not electric current (which you'd guess from the plug) but steam power. O-kay... Not entirely incorrect, but before water becomes light you'd need a couple of steps in between. A turbine would be necessary, a generator, not to mention some source of heat to make the water evaporate. Doing it this way seems a bit like blind faith to me. Hold on! Couldn't that be the clue?
A Religious Image After All?
Since there is light in the globe, holding the plug into steam obviously works, but not in the conventional way. Hmmm... So is it a miracle? Not sure! Even Jesus, who had no problems with walking on water, or turning it into wine, has not been known for using it to create light. And if this character is not Jesus, how does he do it? We don't know where the steam is coming from. Could the bird on his head have something to do with it?
Art is Art
And this is how far my own interpretation has come. I would be curious to hear what other observers have thought, or what explanations you guys have come up with. If you want to see the mural for yourselves, you can find it on the corner of Av. Mazatlan and Av. Veracruz in the Condesa neighborhood of Mexico City. It was painted by Ardy del Rocío, a very prolific muralist, who has created this other mural I posted about once.
There Are More Murals...
If you want to see more of the murals I have found in Mexico, please visit my post collection Mexican Murals. As always, this post is my entry to this week's CCC's Street Art Contest where you can see many interesting examples of street art from around the world, and if you like, you're welcome to post them yourself. Check it out, there are prizes you can win each week!
EDIT: A Final Clue of Perspective
So where is this steam coming from, really? Visiting the artist's website made me notice something I may have overlooked. So once again I ventured out to this location (it's only a 30 minute walk away), and sure enough, I found a point of perspective in form of a pair of feet painted on the ground.
From here the plume of steam looks like it's coming out of that tree stump... which in turn may look like the mouth of a dragon. Or am I going too far in imagining things? Maybe the guy with the bird's nest is a well known character from some aspect pop-culture that only I am not familiar with? One involving dragons, bird's nests, and electric globe lamps? Okay... at this point I am really burning to know, in case anyone has any definitive ideas, or even vague guesses.