Artist Cosimo Cavalarro created this life-sized, extremely realistic sculpture of the crucified Christ out of — get this — chocolate. It is part of an exhibit that is slated to open on Monday at the Roger Smith Lab Gallery in downtown Manhattan. However, the sculpture has offended some (no, really? Art offends people?) The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights is calling for a boycott of a hotel that accompanies the gallery, and has written to over 500 religious and civil organizations to participate in the boycott.
Offensive or not, I think the sculpture is amazing. I mean, look at that detail! After reading the CNN coverage of the controversy, it sounds like most of the people in the offended camp are upset at the nudity, not so much the medium. If that’s the case, then what’s up with that? It’s not shown in a sexual way, and wasn’t Jesus stripped of all his clothing when he was crucified? It kind of brings to light the nastiness of that sort of execution, and the humiliation of his ordeal, if you ask me. It was not a pretty, Renaissance painting scenario. To prettify it kind of takes away the agony and humiliation of public execution, and the cruelty of those performing the deed.
And the medium? Chocolate kind of makes sense for Easter, and then if you think about the communion wafer being consumed as the body of Christ, it’s kind of interesting to think about an entire life-sized, intricate representation of Christ made from something consumabale (and enjoyable!)
It will be interesting to see if the show opens on Monday, as planned, or not. I am not personally offended by the piece, but I am also an artist, so I am looking through an artist’s eyes. I can see how some would probably be offended, though.
I’ve already seen the exhibit. It’s just a small exhibit, taking up the back corner of the Annex Gallery, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in creativity! From Mark Wolfe’s cartoon-like demon paintings to Amy Williams’ “Four Owls of the Apocalypse” to Charley Hamilton’s “Charleston at the Apocolypse,” this is definitely an interesting collection of works.
My 6th grade art students made Koinoburi, or carp windsocks, in class today. Koinoburi are displayed on May 5 in Japan, to celebrate Kodomo no hi, or Children’s Day. They had a blast making these koinoburi out of construction paper and art tissue, and they really brighten up the hallway.
Artist Chris Jordan created this version of Seurat’s masterpiece using 106,000 aluminum cans, the amount of cans used in the United States every thirty seconds. (Thirty seconds!!! Can you imagine?!?!?)
detail:
This is from a series of works created by Jordan called “Running the Numbers: an American Self-Portrait,” in which the artist illustrates the unbelievable numbers behind the statistics of life in America.
What is a Zoomquilt, you ask? It’s a collaborative work of digital art in which a landscape is created, allowing the viewer to zoom in indefinitely and travel through this virtual landscape.
Okay, that’s a lame attempt at defining it. Just visit these sites to see the Zoomquilt for yourself:
The folks at the Purple Moon have generously put together a website for the monthly ArtWalks. For those of you who live under a rock haven’t been to an ArtWalk, they’re lots of fun. You start at any of the galleries around 5:00 on the third Thursday of each month, and you walk around to the rest of them during the next two hours, eat gourmet noshies, drink wine, and meet the artists who exhibit in Charleston galleries. Very fun.
