Little Virgins contains the hidden record of a creepy exchange, in which the artist approached private schoolgirls and offered them donuts in trade for their worn out uniform saddle shoes, which Arata then transformed into a sculptural depiction of the new testament narrative of Pentecost, when tongues of flame (here represented by flickering candle-shaped light bulbs) descended upon the twelve apostles of Jesus and they were filled with the Holy Ghost and spoke in tongues.
Arata’s controversy-inviting side emerges sporadically, seemingly at random, but with carefully calibrated ethical nuances. Mickey Mouse and Hello Kitty branded pipe bombs and cartoonish op art sculptures depicting terrorist attacks (both created long before 9/11) may seem to trivialize postmodern guerilla warfare, but their canny conflation of child-targeted global corporate media symbology and blue-chip abstract painting vocabulary (respectively) with the technology of instantaneous traumatic reality disruption mines a deeper, more hardwired collective vein than most political punditry can muster.