Sculpted by Desire

Leon is Vincent's student, and Vincent's money is what pays for the operation Leon's sister needs, which gives him a hold over Leon that he uses. He controls Leon with the money and with humiliation, and he pushes him to produce work made to cause controversy. Leon has no other way to cover his sister's medical bills, so he goes along. Then Leon learns that Vincent had a student before him who is dead, and that what happened to that student looks a great deal like what is happening to him now. He refuses to be the replacement. He starts putting the truth about the two of them into his own work. It comes to a head at the Venice Biennale. The confrontation there ends the pretending on both sides, in front of a sculpture that shows the two of them joined together as destruction and redemption.