It’s not every day that Michelangelo’s “The Last Judgment” can be seen from a different angle-literally.

The Museum of Contemporary Religious Art (3700 West Pine Blvd.) unveiled its latest exhibit Sunday: Miao Xiaochun’s “The Last Judgment in Cyberspace.”

“We decided this would be an interesting show to bring here,” said MOCRA Director Terrence Dempsey, S.J. “This is how we are happily getting a pretty good [reputation] around the country.”

Xiaochun’s work envisions Michelangelo’s “The Last Judgment” as it might look from behind. Xiaochun created a three-dimensional model of his own body, mapping that image onto the more than 400 figures in the famous Sistine Chapel mural. Large, digital scenes from the image were then printed from different vantage points.

In addition, Xiaochun created a video, in which viewers feel as though they are flying through the painting.

“The images are computer-generated images in which the artist puts himself in the painting,” Dempsey said. “[Xiaochun] becomes the divine, the demonic, the saved and the damned.”

“The Last Judgment in Cyberspace” has only been shown in three venues before its current run at MOCRA: Beijing, Berlin and Chicago.

Xiaochun is well-known in his home country of China for photographing contemporary cityscapes to showcase the urban transformation the country was going through in the 1990s.
Later in his career, Xiaochun started working with computer-generated images and started experimenting with different angles and vantage points in his artwork.

“I think the sheer size and complexity of these works encourage the viewer to become engaged with them,” said MOCRA’s Assistant Director David Brinker. “People who have seen this exhibition have told me how it has caused them to see Michelangelo’s painting in a new light, discovering characters or details they never noticed before.”

“It’s a fascinating dialogue by a 21st-century artist with a painting that was made a millennium ago,” Dempsey said. “It makes you look at the original again.”

Dempsey said that the exhibit has gone over well with the general public during its short stay at MOCRA, and that people have “really enjoyed it.”

In addition to the exhibit, which will run until May 11, MOCRA will be sponsoring a lecture featuring the curator of “The Last Judgment in Cyberspace,” art historian Wu Hung. The lecture will take place on April 15 at the St. Louis Art Museum.

Though Dempsey said that MOCRA is “hoping to have another lecture [at SLU],” nothing has been worked out yet.

MOCRA is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free, but a donation of $5 per adult and $1 per student or child is suggested.