> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.protein.xyz/llms.txt
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# Image of Edessa
- URL: https://www.protein.xyz/image-of-edessa/
- Published: 2013-05-02T09:16:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-05-28T11:01:27.000Z
- Description: Religious iconography and GIFs finally come together to create, a surreal, ominous piece of online art.
- Author: Protein
- Tags: Seeds, Art & Design, #protein, #Import 2024-06-11 13:21, #author-change-2025-05-28

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/71/fc716215-5729-441a-bd07-e2b50bc413b1/content/images/S3/protein/9241/9db9d7f5-4332-4c15-bb7c-899fb20c5e18.png)

Dark and mesmerising, [Image of Edessa](http://image-of-edessa.com/?ref=protein.xyz), is certainly intriguing if not a bit confusing. Artists [Evan Roth](http://blog.evan-roth.com/?ref=protein.xyz) and [Geoffrey Lillemon](http://www.geoffreylillemon.info/?ref=protein.xyz) collaborated to create a ghostly portrait rendered entirely in animated GIFs that include eyeballs, roses, blood-soaked daggers and skulls, amongst others.   
  
The video and website explore the notion of worship, the internet, and identity. Traditionally, the image of Edessa refers to the first icon, a holy relic consisting of a rectangular piece of cloth miraculously imprinted with the image of Jesus. In Image of Edessa the duo question how we view relics in the digital age as “the internet is covered with sacred space and, if anything, The God has been released from traditional doctrine to become everything to everybody.” Whether or not you agree with this point of view, it is a must-see how the GIF has been elevated to a provocative artform.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/71/fc716215-5729-441a-bd07-e2b50bc413b1/content/images/S3/protein/9241/9328802f-26d9-4d3e-99cb-6b2033b4e6f2.jpeg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/71/fc716215-5729-441a-bd07-e2b50bc413b1/content/images/S3/protein/9241/eeb594c9-dd03-4589-8919-8bfd6c975259.jpeg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/71/fc716215-5729-441a-bd07-e2b50bc413b1/content/images/S3/protein/9241/2b8e9d44-7f08-4464-ac0b-15b89c14072e.jpeg)