SHOCKING & CONTROVERSIAL ART EXHIBITIONS
Enrique Gomez De Molina’s odd and enchanting “fantasy taxidermy” series was plagued with protests since its inception. However, you can’t be quoted as saying “I guess I like to play God” without ruffling a few feathers. Though his creative combinations of creatures’ remains could be seen as macabre, he often claimed honest intentions, stating that his work called attention to the dire population declines of endangered animals. However, such lofty idealisms were quickly disposed of when he was arrested for illegally importing the remains of threatened species, such as hornbills and orangutans. It’s a shame that his search for impossible creatures caused him to support the poaching of the wonderful ones we have in the here-and-now.
Tracey Emerin’s “Everyone I Have Ever Slept With, 1964 – 1995” has to be one of highest forms of bedpost-notching in recorded history. Aside from simply sexual encounters, however, Emerin also listed people she simply slept beside, like her grandmother with whom she’d listen to the radio while drifting off to slumber. However, its “sleepaway camp science fair” appearance brought a fair share of critics, and when the piece was destroyed in a warehouse fire in 2004, the public reaction was more mocking than sympathetic.
Chinese activist and artist Ai Weiwei is no stranger to controversy. The iconoclast has made a career of speaking out against the restrictive Chinese government, which has earned him international acclaim… as well as 81 days spent unjustly detained in prison and a life spent evading further incarceration. In this exhibit, Weiwei attained several 2,000-year-old Han era vases, which he then shattered (see above) or painted over with the lead-ridden, industrial-grade paint currently used in Chinese mass manufacturing. Meant to call attention to the country’s arbitrary exaltation of outdated traditions, Weiwei’s seminal artistic statement made headlines a second time when a protestor smashed one of his painted-over vases, priced at $1 million. When arrested, the protestor hilariously defended himself by saying that his own protest was art, in and of itself. This caused quite the stir in the art world. Is what defines “art” simply the prestige of the person behind it? I suppose that depends on how you feel about signed toilets and paintings of soup cans.
Andres Serrano’s “Piss Christ” is about as purposfully controversial as you can get. After receiving $15,000 of taxpayer money from a National Endowment of Arts grant, Serrano wisely spent the money on what could very well have been an extraordinarily expensive jar, which he then filled with a crucifix and his own urine. The piece was vandalized “beyond repair” by a group of Christian fundamentalists wielding hammers. Police records unfortunately do not report the moistness or aroma of the aissalents at the time of arrest.The front door is closed. I knock on it – no answer. It’s noisy inside, and I imagine it would be difficult to hear my sheepish tapping over the festivities at hand.