This piece is based around a real altar icon, Our Lady of Luján, the representation of the Virgin Mary that serves as the protector of Argentina. ‘Primera’ it reads behind her: part of an incantation that marks her as the country’s ‘first founder’. I found her in Buenos Aires. She is the porthole to the ascension. God’s footstool.

There’s an old Dolly Parton song about getting down on your knees and praying, and I’ve often thought about who prays at altars and when. Two countries go to war, and both ask God for victory. But God is also on the loser’s side. He is on the persecuted homosexual’s side. God is on the Whore of Babylon’s side. He is on everyone’s side.

So here is the Virgin Mary, the feminine face of God in pink and pastel blue. Parrot’s wings and a cicada ascend: jewels from a Garden of Paradise. Resurrection! But around her, too, are more grillerige things. Claws that grab, beaks that bite; a devil’s underworld. Defeat and loss.

And yet you will find beauty there – God there – too. The claws offer up crystals, symbols of clarity and cleansing. And in the eye sockets of the bird’s skulls are roundels of malachite that promise protection to travellers… whether they’re krapping around in Buenos Aires or looking within themselves.

Yet even as we avert our eyes, Our Lady gazes forth. Stare and be stared at. Seek and be sought. Reflect your soul back to those of others. Souls within souls within souls, tracking back throughout time… in search of the first founder.

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Photography: Russel Smith / Text: Jonathan Bain