Lo and behold the miracle: votive painting in the public sphere

Abstract

This visual essay takes as its point of departure the Mexican tradition of ex-voto, the votive paintings that are offered to the saints to fulfil a vow. In particular, it explores contemporary forms of votive paintings to elucidate what becomes of miracles when they are transposed to the public art sphere. My case study focuses on the work of a Mexican art collective whose members are devoted to Santa Muerte (Saint Death) and reveals that art can act as literal embodiments of a thaumaturgy – the supernatural work of the saint – and as expressions of the rippling effects of a miracle. This paper proposes, that the manifold scales and expressions of a miracle, observed through their paintings, become visible in the public sphere. Ultimately, it contends that by increasing the visibility of thaumaturgy, artwork made in thanks to a saint comes to contain the manifold temporal consequences of a single miraculous event.