In a world obsessed with making things last, is there something more honest about an art form that simply refuses to stay put? Artist Cosimo Cavallaro has always been a flirt with the fleeting. He’s built a career on the impermanent, from hotel rooms dripping in Swiss cheese to walls made of perishable promises at the border. But it was his 2007 sculpture, My Sweet Lord, a life-sized chocolate Jesus, that truly made the city stop and stare, igniting a firestorm of censorship and religious sensitivity that was, quite frankly, more bitter than dark cacao.
Nearly two decades later, Cavallaro is back to play with our hearts and our palates. His latest affair, Passion of the Crust, is a three-hour digital meditation on a chocolate sculpture of a transgender Jesus, slowly surrendering to a heated plate. With Ravel’s Boléro providing the soundtrack to the slow drip, the work is less of a spectacle and more of a quiet, glamorous transformation.
They say you can never go back, but sometimes, the past just has a way of finding your current address.
“I never thought I would revisit it,” Cavallaro tells LADYGUNN, reflecting on the death threats of the past. “But something kept calling me back. I realized I wasn’t repeating the past – I was searching for something deeper.”
And just like a chance encounter on a Soho street corner, that search led him to transgender fashion model Rain Batingana.
“When I heard Rain’s voice, time seemed to stop,” Cavallaro admits. “I told her she was Jesus, and she smiled and offered herself with love. There was no resistance, only acceptance. It felt like a blessing.”
For Rain, the role wasn’t about the controversy; it was about the couture of the soul, especially during a month dedicated to being seen.
“I felt honored to be part of something that asks people to look beyond labels,” she says. “This wasn’t about controversy for me. It was about humanity, love, and being seen. Pride Month is a reminder that everyone deserves dignity and the freedom to live as their authentic selves.”
“What I witnessed wasn’t destruction, it was transformation,” Cavallaro observes. “The body, the crust, dies. But the spirit remains. What I experienced was not division. It was unity.”
Rain hopes that if the audience can stop looking at the headlines, they might just see the heart.
“People will have their own reactions,” she muses. “But I hope they allow themselves to feel something. We all want acceptance. We all want love. Maybe that’s the real message.”
See the photos and decadent artistry of Chocolate Jesus Melts below:
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