The muffin cars, electric-powered vehicles built to resemble cupcakes, scoot around the open spaces of the San Mateo Event Center & Expo, a sprawling fairground about 20 miles south of San Francisco and, on this day, a million miles from normal.
Just inside the gates of the third annual Maker Faire, a converted fire engine belches an occasional explosive flare that sends a chest-pounding Pfoomp! throughout the fairground, startling bystanders over and over again. That contraption was made by folks from the Crucible, an industrial arts studio based in Oakland where people can take lessons in welding, blacksmithing and many, many other ways to play with heat and flame.
Nearby is the Swarm, a set of 30-inch cut-aluminum orbs that roll around on the grass, self-powered but guided by remote control. Children are playing keep-away with them.
But they are definitely not playing tag with Justin Gray’s fire sculptures around the corner. It could have something to do with the fact that they look like menacing tanks on clanking treads. Or it could be the way Robot Libby, the one that emits a horrifying turbine whine from a metallic ball bobbing on a heavy iron chain, spits gouts of multicolored flame. (As Mr. Gray manipulates the remote control, the machine mixes powders into the flame to change its color: strontium for red, copper for bluish green, steel powder for a fireworks effect.) Each burst sends a heat wave that rocks the onlookers back a step or two.
At first blush, then, this festival, sponsored by Make magazine, is a gathering place of pyromaniacs and noise junkies, the multiply pierced and the extensively tattooed. But wander awhile, and the showy surface gives way to a wondrous thing: the gathering of folks from all walks of life who blend science, technology, craft and art to make things both goofy and grand. (See images from the fair and listen to audio interviews with some participants.)
Back in February, Saturday Night did a peppery parody of a CNN televised debate in which it painted the press as fawning all over Democratic Senator Barack Obama and dismissing and being hard on Senator Hillary Clinton. Clinton’s campaign and Clinton herself pointed to that parody in their argument that the press was going easy on Obama and part of “Obamanamia” and hadn’t been vetting or challenging him.
Shortly after that, what many believe was Obama’s “free” ride indeed ended — and some pundits attributed it to the SNL sketch and the Clinton campaigns use of it as an example of how it wasn’t only them that had this perception of the press’ behavior.
Obama supporters charged SNL was repeatedly biased in its parodies in favor of Clinton and skewering their candidate — and Dan Abrams on MSNBC noted in a segment that political supporters were going haywire…and that SNL was a political candidate equal offender (click on the link since he includes various excerpts).
The Clinton campaign loved SNL — but it’s likely the love affair is over now with last night’s latest parody which at times seems downright brutal.
April 15th, 2008 by SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist
With its perpetually (and historically) rocky relationship, the Arab and European worlds have seldom met in a peaceful manner (or without suspicion) during the past half a millenium ever since the downfall of the Moorish civilization in Spain. In this context the on-going London Book Fair, with the “Arab World” as guest of honour and Arab writers present in force, provides yet another opportunity to build a bridge between the two worlds.
The Independent writes: “Imperial bureaucrats, soldiers and scholars on one side; radical nationalists, pious militants and oil-rich oligarchs on the other – all have had their various axes to grind, and to wield. Now, perhaps, the writers of the Arab world can begin to find a voice in the West again. It’s always easier to love distant stars when they can shine, plainly and legibly, on the page in front of us.
“The (London) fair will be the culmination of a long-term plan, steered by the British Council, to forge firmer cultural bonds. And, although he comes from far beyond the Arab world (and writes in English), the Afghan author Khaled Hosseini’s double coup in topping the UK charts both with The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns has helped to put a spring in the step of everyone who wants to widen the readership for literature from the Middle East and North Africa.
(The Kite Runner novel was the third best-seller for 2005 in the United States, according to Nielsen BookScan. It’s been published in 38 countries, translated into 42 languages, turned into an Oscar-nominated movie – and sold more than 10 million copies — one of the publishing industry’s greatest success stories. Now the search is on for the next big thing to come from the East. The Kite Runner is a 2007 Academy Award-nominated film directed by Marc Forster based on the novel of the same name by Khaled Hosseini (click here for more…)
“In the Gulf, lavishly funded new competitions such as the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (the ‘Arab Booker’) and the Sheikh Zayed Awards have signalled the intention of the emirate of Abu Dhabi to build up its name as a global centre of culture. Not to be outdone, and fretting perhaps at its current reputation as the world capital of bling, neighbouring Dubai begins a new literary festival next year. Also in Abu Dhabi, the Kalima translation project has launched an ambitious, state-financed programme to bring, at the rate of 100 per year, classic and contemporary books from around the world into Arabic for the first time and to distribute them across the region. ” More here…
I lived in London during the mid-1970s. I extensively covered there a major “World of Islam Festival” for The Statesman newspaper in India. The festival was opened by Queen Elizabeth II. “As far as anyone can remember, such an attempt had never been made before—and probably could not have been. It is only recently that one civilization has been capable of looking at another civilization objectively, rather than as a potential rival or convert. Read the rest of this entry »
March 10th, 2008 by JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief
Hand blown art glass infused with love and care is hard to find. I know the love and care that this artist puts into his work. Go here to see the creations that he loves so much as do others. (Even though I’m related to him, I never ceased to be moved by his care, dedication to his work and love of his craft)
February 20th, 2008 by SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist
It is an unusual review of an exhibition that took place in New York in 1917…and now takes place in London. “One day in spring 1917, the organisers of the forthcoming exhibition stood and gazed in consternation at one of the submissions. In fact, it was a urinal of the most common variety, in white porcelain, lying on its back. You can see it, from tomorrow, at Tate Modern’s exhibition Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia – and it’s fair to say that the response to it in 1917 in New York may well be replicated by some visitors, in 2008, in London.” …More here…
. . . to this poster of Barack Obama by propaganda poster artist Shepard Fairly? Does it resonate positively or is there something ominous in the style and wording?
If you peruse this list of policy initiatives provided by The White House in relation to President George W. Bush’s State of the Union address last night (transcript is here; C-SPAN video is here), you may notice that two topics concern science and technology, two topics concern education and no topics concern the arts.
[NB: The final topic on that list, about worldwide compassion, stands out to me because I recently read about Compassion, which is a faith-based initiative that will use word of mouth blog power in Uganda next month. (If you’re interested in how non-profits are trying to leverage blogs and blogging and bloggers’ enthusiasm, you might want to follow Beth Kanter’s blog and read about How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media; she is one of the top experts in this area.) But I digress.]
So, while it’s nice that President Bush leaves us with his thoughts on science-related issues and makes sure to mention education (given No Child Left Behind’s continued existence, it’s unlikely we could forget Bush’s role there), some groups are demanding (or trying to demand) that the presidential candidates pay attention to their specific issues: Science Debate 2008, Ed in ‘08 and Arts Vote 2008 are three examples. Read the rest of this entry »
January 28th, 2008 by MICHAEL STICKINGS, Assistant Editor
Last week marked the 176th anniversary of the birth of the great Edouard Manet. A realist in his early years, and later a close friend of (and inspiration to) the Impressionists, and something of an impressionist in his own right, however much he may have eschewed such artificial categories, Manet was one of the most brilliant and accomplished painters of the 19th century, and his work remains widely celebrated — and justifiably so. He and his work — and above all the masterpieces Olympia (1863) and Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe (1863) — were enormously influential, and he was a key forerunner both of Impressionism and of modernism generally.
Over at my own blog, I frequently take time out from politics to delve into art history, one of my genuine loves — examining a specific painter or even, in some cases, a specific painting. If you’re interested in reading a post on Manet, with links to articles and to some of his greatest works, click here.
December 12th, 2007 by SHAUN MULLEN, TMV Columnist
Back when I was a little sprat, I opened my very first savings account at the Wilmington Savings Fund Society office on Market Street in that northern Delaware city, a semi-bustling burg of 80,000 or so souls dominated by the mighty DuPont Company.
Hand in hand, my mother and I walked through the revolving door and into the bank. I was stopped dead in my tracks by a magnificent mural looming on a lobby wall. My mother had to nudge me over to a teller’s window, where I stood on a step stool and slipped quarters into the half moon-shaped slots in my first deposit book.
I asked the teller about the mural.
She replied that it was N.C. Wyeth’s “The Apotheosis of the Family.”
Every time my deposit book filled up and I returned to WSFS, I would gaze up at “The Apotheosis,” which had the effect of making me feel very small in stature but at the same time very big since I was old enough to have my money in Wilmington’s premier savings bank.
Fast forward more years than I care to remember. DuPont still has a presence in Wilmington, but it is a considerably diminished one as the once-giant chemical maker has stumbled trying to branch out from its longtime moneymakers in synthetic fibers, paints and such into new markets like pharmaceuticals and genetic engineering. The city’s skyline is now dominated by big out-of-town banks that have opened credit-card operations to take advantage of Delaware’s welcoming banking laws.
WSFS is putting up a new headquarters, and the bank of my childhood will be gutted and rebuilt as a hotel or for apartments or whatever. The developer apparently can’t find a way to incorporate the 60-foot-by-19-foot mural — my mural — into his plans and intends to dispose of it.
That is how I opened a post early this year. A decision has now been made on the fate of “The Apotheosis.”
December 3rd, 2007 by SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist
I lived in Paris for a few months in the mid-1970s. One of my favourite haunts was Bibliothèque Nationale. I had heard in whispers about its ambitious and controversial official project then on to collect France’s erotica and pornography.
So I was not surprised by the latest news report that “France’s official hoard of erotica and pornography, lovingly assembled by the Bibliothèque Nationale over a period of 170 years, will be thrown open to the startled eyes of the public for the first time this week.
“More than 350 books and prints from the forbidden section of the state library – officially known as “L’Enfer” (hell) – will be presented in an academically meticulous, but often frankly filthy, exhibition in Paris for three months from tomorrow.
“The ‘Enfer’ section of the Bibliothèque Nationale – books and prints and photographs purchased, confiscated or donated over almost two centuries – is believed to be one of the largest and richest collections of pornographic and erotic materials in the world. The Vatican’s secret stash is said to be even larger but that, presumably, will never be opened to the public.
“The collection – over 1,700 books and many more prints and pamphlets – was obtained partly by raids and confiscations. A large part of L’Enfer came from the private library of a political opponent of the Emperor Napoleon III, who was raided by police looking for anti-Imperial tracts in 1866. They found hundreds of old works which were judged ‘contrary to good public morals’. A court ordered the books to be burned but the then head of the Bibliothèque Nationale insisted they should be saved for posterity.”
August 3rd, 2007 by DR. CLARISSA PINKOLA ESTÉS, TMV Columnist
New York Times journo, a fellow Irish boy named Randy Kennedy, reports that Mr. Riley said, “I’m not really a very technical kind of guy,†…[He was] sitting shirtless on the pier Thursday with various green things still clinging to his arms from the water. “I just guessed a lot on this.†Asked how he planned to get back to shore after the tide carried him out to the cruise ship, he grinned. “I haven’t really thought about that yet,†he said.
“Yesterday afternoon, as he, Mr. Bushnell and Mr. Cushing were being taken into custody, still dripping wet, Mr. Riley’s dealers, Alberto Magnan and Dara Metz, said they planned to display the submarine in a show soon at their Chelsea gallery. And to post Mr. Riley’s bail, if needed.”
The first report I heard of this, via police monitor, via a friend in New York, was that there was a submarine in harbor waters that was approaching the ship, Queen Mary. For a while, all hell broke loose with the T and the E words being thrown about liberally and conservatively, and much mad rushing about.
By this evening, I received another email from a different correspondent in New York, noting the story in much calmer terms. It appears, upon actual investigation, it turned out that what looked about as much like a nuclear submarine as a ham on rye sub from the local sandwich shop, it was discovered, this was not T, and was not E… it was far far worse. It was ART!!
Eeeek, Qweek! Di Russhins Air Comink, Di Russhins Air Comink! Qweek, Hite Di Cheeldrins!!
Ok, ok, everyone calmed down. The, ‘art’ was a wooden form shaped more it seemed like a diving bell than submarine, but the artist said he constructed it from pictures of the first submarine ever, one used in the Revolutionary War. (With subs like this, you wonder if they also went to war wearing tin cooking pots on their heads… it’s a wonder anyone won that war.)
The artist just “wanted to float north in the Buttermilk Channel to stage an incursion against the Queen Mary 2, which had just docked in Red Hook, the mission objective mostly just to get close enough to the ship to videotape himself against its immensity for a coming gallery show.”
There were three people inside ‘the sub’ making it seem a little like a clown car or a VW Bug college student trick considering its size. Most interesting would be how the ’sub’ was constructed so that it didn’t, from the weight of its wood alone, sink like a rock. Video at 11 pm I hope. Did the artist draw from some secret Noah’s blueprints about how to seal the wood so it wouldn’t water log and drown them all? How do you get such a heavy creature past rip tides…if there are riptides at the input.
And could it be, the artist hadn’t planned how to get back to shore because he was pretty sure the coastguard, harbor patrol, police boats, news helicopters, police choppers and everyone and their mother who had a badge were going to descend on the wooden war bell? He’s reported to have stowed no oars, and there was no motor gerry-rigged to the ’sub.’ I hear that after all the “promise us you’re not a terrorist,” was settled, his wooden ’sub’ did get a none too gentle police-tow back to shore.
Nonetheless, I wish I’d been able to travel inside that ‘sub’ if for no other reason that to see the faces of the police, often Irishmen themselves some of them, confront another daft and talented son of The Green. And now The Blue.
Leave it up to an Irishman to create a modern event from archaic technology. Even though portside, er stern, um, well maybe aft (how does one tell where the bow is on an almost circular ‘sub’?) there is, on the police boat there, a really big guy with a really big automatic firearm poised. But too, the artist is reportedly walking art ammunition himself; He’s reportedly covered with tattoos. Another kind of message/weapon altogether.
July 24th, 2007 by DR. CLARISSA PINKOLA ESTÉS, TMV Columnist
Some musicians seem like they’re made to lead the world. Some seem born citizens of the earth, regardless whichever country, heritage, religion they’re born into. Regardless what their parents wanted for them; regardless of childhood introjects… they travel the world, often as what I’d call ‘rememberers,’ musicians who help us remember that water can flow through stone.
If spoken words are capable of too easily offending some, destroying and dividing us, then music seems far more often able to unite, to cross tightly controlled checkpoints that bar babblers and blabbers, but let through musicians carrying a stringed, wind, or percussion instrument… like water through stone. Maybe the musicians who are Rememberers could for a while, lead the detente talks, the conciliation talks, the cease fires and peace agreements. Arion of Methymna and Orpheus of Thrace are celebrated in song to this day, for Arion surrounded Thebes with walls by the power of music, and Orpheus tamed the wild beasts by the mere might of song. Some element inside the mythic is always very real.
Tisha B’av is about mourning what has been destroyed and finding a way to build a new, even more beautiful temple, whether cultural, personal, religious or creative. Here are some musicians who are pylons and piers and guy wires and girders for bridges across roiling waters:
Jewish-Muslim music: Gerard Edery…”I’m not naive about the political reality, or about how polarized Jews and Arabs have become.” Edery is a singer and classical guitarist …Standing before a room full of Muslims, this Jewish musician launched into “a very Jewish song” in Hebrew about Elijah the prophet. Then, “without even thinking,” he started teaching the audience the words. “At first, I sensed a hesitation from the audience… After a few measures…700 to 800 Muslims [were] singing with me in Hebrew.” Edery, who was born in Casablanca, moved to Paris at age 4 and then the United States at age 8… Like those of Central Asia, Jews and Muslims in pre-Inquisition Spain, the place of Edery’s maternal ancestry, “shared similar, musical, poetical and artistic” license. There was a tolerance and a cross-pollination…”I’m not a politician or a scholar. I’m a musician. And I believe in doing what I can through music…: “We should all delve into our past and embrace all our traditions, whether Jewish or Muslim. Let me sing to you in Arabic and you can sing to me in Hebrew and let’s realize, very specifically, that we Jews and Arabs are from the same soil.”
Hindu-Muslim music: Bismillah Khan’s ancestors were court musicians who played in Naqqar khana in the princely states of Bhojpur. His father was a shehnai player in the court of Maharaja Keshav Prasad. Despite his fame, Khan’s lifestyle retained old world Benares: his chief mode of transport was the cycle rickshaw. A man of tenderness, he believed in remaining private, and that “musicians are supposed to be heard and not seen.” He was a pious ShiÃa Muslim and also, like many Indian musicians regardless of creed, a devotee of Mother Saraswati. He often played at various temples and on the banks of the river Ganga in Varanasi, besides playing outside the famous Vishwanath temple in Varanasi. Khan is one of the finest musicians in post-independent Indian Classical music and one of the best examples of Hindu-Muslim unity in India. He said, “Even if the world ends, the music will still survive… Music has no caste”.
AfricanAmerican-Jewish music: In New York, The American Symphony Orchestra wove this: concerts that “contribute to the current political debate by presenting a moment of history when matters were different. Not nostalgia, but rather the exploration of different models from which to draw inspiration for the present and future. The composers on this program born into Jewish families who integrated African-American materials in their work–Gershwin, Gruenberg and Gould–did so in ways which earned the respect and admiration of their African-American contemporaries and colleagues. The composers of African-American descent–Price, Ellington and Kay–who integrated European traditions with African-American traditions, did so in ways which earned the respect and admiration of their non-African-American contemporaries and colleagues. Read the rest of this entry »
July 22nd, 2007 by DR. CLARISSA PINKOLA ESTÉS, TMV Columnist
This is a picture of Tammy Faye Baker Messner. It looks a little bit like an outsider art portrait done by Francis Bacon or by Egon Schiele, doesn’t it? Two days ago, in this video still, Tammy Faye weighed 65 pounds. She had cancer that went to her lungs. My reason for bringing her image here is not to discuss her life, but this act, her last public act, that she initiated, calling Larry King and asking to be on his show… to literally give an ‘end time’ public view of what those of us who have worked in hospice long before it was ever called hospice, have seen often… but a view that is often shut away from the public… only those who have loved their loved ones to the end and past the end… see how the body even though diminished, can still carry enormous spirit.
We’re taught to look with the culture’s cynical eye at those who are dying; to shut them away from view. Or, the dying person themselves having learned shame from the culture, closes the drapes against their physical changes, wanting to be remembered as they once were in some time before. It is alright, to each their own. Truly, each person’s choice.
And, at the same time, I think we ought no longer be afraid to look on the faces and bodies of those who are rowing toward a somewhere we can’t yet see, for if we look away, we’ll miss the huge showers of sparks their spirits keep throwing off, even in their last days. There are other ways to, not look, but to see those so very close to dying…
…One can look with an artist’s eye at those who are dying and see that they have a beauty all of their own. It is not magazine uni-beauty, that is true. It is a kind that is both daunting and beautiful, like desert mesas with no roads in or out in the dust of sunset are beautiful; like mountain escarpments are beautiful; like a gold mine nearly played out but with one last vein of glowing gold ore left, is beautiful, sometimes like a shattered jewel is beautiful, because every part still catches light, and some shards you thought lost suddenly sparkle from seeming nowhere…
For those of us who are only dying more slowly than those who are dying more quickly, I think it takes guts for us to look differently at those who are literally in their last days, to not follow the pop culture’s line, which is to unworthy the worthy. JP Squared, that is, Pope John Paul II, in his bent over Ichabod condition at the end, while insisting on blessing the crowds from his window, barely able to raise his head or hand, shaking to pieces like a jitney with too big an engine… is said to have admonished those who tried to keep him in his bed: Let them see me dying; let the people see.
April 27th, 2007 by SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist
(Photo courtesy Pierre Verdy — AFP/Getty Images)
The celebrated Russian cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, affectionately known as “Slava”, has died at the age of 80, reports BBC.
James Jolly, editor-in-chief of Gramophone magazine, looks back at his musical legacy. “With the death of Mstislav Rostropovich, the musical world has lost not just one of its greatest interpreters but also one of the greatest muses of the 20th Century.
“As a cellist, he was responsible for the creation of hundreds of new works, many from some of the greatest composers of the day.
“Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Britten, Lutoslawski and Penderecki all wrote concertos or concertante works for him, and hundreds of lesser composers were the beneficiaries of his boundless enthusiasm for new music.”
To read Mstislav Rostropovich’s (March 27, 1927 – April 27, 2007), obituary please click here… “Rostropovich was regarded as the greatest cellist since Pablo Casals. He was born in 1927 in Baku, by the Caspian Sea, with music in his blood. His mother was a pianist and his father a cellist, pianist and composer.”
In a moving homage The Washington Post says: “The life force that was Rostropovich ceased exactly one month after his 80th birthday. On a day of mourning for all those who love music, the grief is felt acutely in Washington, where the exiled Rostropovich was the music director of the National Symphony Orchestra from 1977 to 1994…
“He was a shameless, irrepressible flirt, and a connoisseur of fine food and drink, a man who gulped vodka in much the same way — and with much the same enthusiasm — that a professional athlete might gulp Gatorade. He was good copy for anybody who wanted to write about him: Time Magazine put Rostropovich on its cover (30 years ago), calling him “The Magnificent Maestro.” Click here to read the Time article…
There was a time (not long ago) when the readers/viewers attention was riveted more towards the advertisements than the news/programmes while reading/watching newspapers/magazines and television.
But times are changing. Now as the newspapers and the TV opt more for the dramatic and jazzy approach of the ads, many ad practitioners fear, ironically, that ads are no longer reaching the heights they were once capable of.
So is the industry suffering an ideas crisis? asks Ian Burrell in The Independent. Advertising is an art form Âbut now the consumers’ attention has begun to wander.
“According to independent research by TGI (Target Group Index), the proportion of the audience who think that television ads are as good as the programmes has fallen from 32 per cent in 1991 to 15 per cent in 2006. Advertising is getting worse, and I would give five reasons why…” Read on…
And then there are ads which, some say, we can do without… Click here… And here…
April 6th, 2007 by SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist
New York artist Leonard Rosenfeld created this portrait of David Petraeus in 2004, inspired by Petraeus’s famous question on Iraq: “Tell me how this ends.�
Thank you Marc Schulman for the suggestion to read Jim Lehrer’s lengthy interview with the General Petraeus on PBS NewsHour.
I have been doing a bit of research on this General, and the Lehrer interview confirms my findings that this Chief of the US army in Iraq is not an ordinary soldier/human being…
Well, to be precise, he is a ‘Dragon’. Let me talk first about this dimension of his personality before I discuss the PBS NewsHour interview. Let’s have some fun…
David Howell Petraeus is a ‘pucca’ Dragon in the Chinese astrology (born November 7, 1952) and the element that governs him is ‘water’. And that’s it - fire and water!!! Contradictory?
Says my favourite Chinese astrologer Suzanne White: “Unlike other Dragons, this Dragon is a tad more moderate and his verve is tampered by the influence of Water. He gives the impression of high-born gentility, likeable and,well, scholarly and informed.”
She says that this Dragon cannot kowtow to a bunch of ‘witless cigar-smoking guys’…either success comes ‘because of his talent, his unusual gifts and his remarkable brilliance, or he simply cannot be bothered. He would rather go and live in the country and raise goats.’
“This Dragon is intuitive, and can advise you on almost any thing. He has the capacity to be a soothsayer.
“If he does not know an answer to a direct question he will say so”. (Those of you who have read Gen Petraeus’s interview given to PBS NewsHour would find how true this statement is. Read about this in my next post.)
“Love is his main objective…Family, children and long friendships are the mainstay of his emotional stability. He lives for improving the structure of his family and thrives on the approval and gratitude he receives from them.”
This Dragon is “creative,…innovative” and multi-talented. Does not like conformity. “He knows how to marry the new with the established and come up with plans which surprise us by their improvisational yet solid sturdiness…”
Well, I can’t go beyond this length in this post without annoying TMV’s editor-in-chief Joe Gandelman who keeps reminding us contributors to be brief. So I take up Gen Petraeus’s interview in the next post tomorrow.
But I can’t sign off without providing this ‘Dragon’ General’s Chinese astrological forecast for the year 2007: “…Your most divine dreams will start to come true this year. Harmony re-enters the picture too.
“Your private life smooths out…Behave modestly: It wouldn’t hurt to tone down your act, be gentler, lower your voice, take an occasional back seat in the arguments.
“Be more humble - if only for the purpose of gaining the goodwill of those who, previously, found you far too overwhelmingly fiery.
March 31st, 2007 by JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief
The highly controversial art exhibit in New York of “My Sweet Lord,” a naked, anatomically correct chocolate Jesus has reached meltdown: the exhibit has been canceled.
Is this a bittersweet moment for those who argue “art” should be broadly defined and protected — or a case of people twisting the concept of art and mocking religion getting their just desserts?
At issue is the life-sized Jesus (AP photo above) that may have thrilled chocoholics everywhere but didn’t thrill Roman Catholics and others who believe there should be some sensitivity displayed when it comes to religions. Reuters reports:
A Manhattan art gallery canceled on Friday its Easter-season exhibit of a life-size chocolate sculpture depicting a naked Jesus, after an outcry by Roman Catholics.
The sculpture “My Sweet Lord” by Cosimo Cavallaro was to have been exhibited for two hours each day next week in a street-level window of the Roger Smith Lab Gallery in Midtown Manhattan.
The display had been scheduled to open on Monday, days ahead of Good Friday when Christians mark the crucifixion of Jesus. But protests including a call to boycott the affiliated Roger Smith Hotel forced the gallery to scrap the showing.
“Your response to the exhibit at the Lab Gallery is crystal clear and has brought to our attention the unintended reaction of you and other conscientious friends of ours to the exhibition of Cosimo Cavallaro,” Roger Smith Hotel President James Knowles said in a statement addressed to “Dear Friends.”
“We have caused the cancellation of the exhibition and wish to affirm the dignity and responsibility of the hotel in all its affairs,” the statement said.
The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights had called for a boycott of the hotel, writing to 500 religious and secular organizations.
“This is an assault on Christians during Holy Week,” said Kiera McCaffrey, director of communications for the league, which describes itself as the largest U.S. Catholic civil-rights group.
“They would never dare do something similar with a chocolate statue of the prophet Mohammad naked with his genitals exposed during Ramadan,” she said before the cancellation.
The archbishop of New York called the sculpture “scandalous” and a “sickening display.”
“This is something we will not forget,” Cardinal Edward Egan said in a statement.
The controversy has been raging for days now but perhaps the most astute comment came from New York’s Mayor:
“If you want to give the guy some publicity, talk more about it, make a big fuss,” Bloomberg told WABC radio. “If you want to really hurt him, don’t pay attention.
The AP gives these details about the exhibit and its creative artist:
The sculpture was to debut Monday evening, the day after Palm Sunday and just four days before Roman Catholics mark the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday. The final day of the exhibit was planned for Easter Sunday.
The artwork was created from more than 200 pounds of milk chocolate, and features Christ with his arms outstretched as if on an invisible cross. Unlike the typical religious portrayal of Christ, the Cavallaro creation does not include a loincloth.
Cavallaro is best known for his quirky work with food as art: past efforts include repainting a Manhattan hotel room in melted mozzarella and spraying five tonnes of pepper jack cheese on a Wyoming home.
A room in melted mozzarella? That sounds like my old college dorm…
Cavallaro, an Italian immigrant who was reared Catholic, insisted he wasn’t trying to offend anyone. “This person is talking from a very narrow window,” he said of Donohue. “If it makes them feel better, I’ll ask for their forgiveness and do 10 Hail Marys, but they should just lighten up.”
And thus continues the tug that has gone on for several years now between those who take the definition of art to a meaning a bit beyond what it was 100 or perhaps even 40 years ago and those with a perhaps more constrained definition of art. And, add to that mix, the constant issue of what kind of artistic representation of a religious icon or something related to a religion represents an affront.
The issue here is double fold but the uproar was clearly not that Jesus was in chocolate. You can actually buy religious chocolates. Clearly, the issue was that Jesus was shown in all his naked glory — which is why the AP photo above shows you a back shot.
Remember: for a while the Virgin Mary seemingly appeared in a grilled cheese sandwhich and some considered it a miracle.
Best Week Ever: “While I applaud Donohue’s provocative off-the-cuff artistic brainstorming… I personally find a giant Chocolate Jesus to be an infinitely more appropriate symbol for a religion who currently chooses to celebrate their holiest of holidays by having their kids look for Cadbury eggs hidden by a giant magical bunny. Besides, you could fill the Chocolate Jesus with peanut butter, and effectively disprove all of evolution in the process - that’s two doves with one stone.”
My thoughts run to the commercialization of Easter – the chocolate bunnies, etc. that have come to dominate the holiday, and the angst among Christians that what they see as the true meaning of the holiday has been forgotten. That meaning, of course, is the Resurrection of Jesus. Only rarely do Christians acknowledge that like Christmas, the holiday is a mixture of pagan and Christian traditions. For those who focus on the Resurrection, yearly plays and processions, early morning worship services, special meals that include lamb, etc. form a traditional religious celebration. As I see it, the chocolate Jesus symbolizes the commercialization of the Christian tradition that occurs when such traditions become capitalist ventures devoid of meaning….
….The chocolate Jesus is not only thought-provoking, it is also well-done. Most definitely, it qualifies as art.
—Jawa Report: “In another sign of just how isolated from society the “art world” has become, promoters of a life size crucified Jesus made of milk chocolate are surprised that unveiling the work during Easter Week has caused controversy….[Noting that the gallery owner called this a Catholic “fatwa]Oh come on. Have your artist come up with a statue of Mohammed having sex with child bride Aisha, made of pork suet, and we’ll talk “fatwa,” you pussy.”
–Michelle Malkin has a lot of news and other links and writes: “How would the MSM cover an artist exhibition of a “Chocolate Mohammed” timed to coincide with Ramadan? They wouldn’t. But find an artist to mock Jesus at Easter with a chocolate sculpture…and you’ll get wall to wall coverage…No pixelation. No withholding the photos in the name of respect for Christianity. No taboos. Where’s the MSM’s concern for avoiding deliberately provocative religious insults now.” She points to how the media held back on cartoons offending Muslims.
The artist could have made his satirical point in any case without showing the genitalia of the crucified Christ. That was needlessly provocative, and certainly intentional. As one person put it, who wouldn’t have expected controversy over that particular artistic choice? The artist’s assertion that Catholics should let him off with ten Hail Marys after he asks their forgoveness also shows a cluelessness about the Catholic faith. Penance only works when the sinner has truly repented and admitted his sins. It’s not a price list for offenses in that the commission of a particular sin costs 10 Hail Marys each time you commit it. For Cosimo Cavallaro to get any benefit from his 10 Hail Marys, he’d have to destroy the chocolate Jesus first.
Friends from India sent us THIS LINK to a fascinating 29 minute video. It’s best viewed by going to the link itself. The description of the video includes this:” A vast number of statements and materials presented in the ancient Vedic literatures can be shown to agree with modern scientific findings … all » and they also reveal a highly developed scientific content in these literatures. The great cultural wealth of this knowledge is highly relevant in the modern world.” If you’re interested in The World’s Largest Democracy (where I lived for several years) this is must viewing.
