Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Why Won't Someone Crucify Big Mo On A Missile For Art's Sake?

Gerard Henderson visits a modern art gallery, shuffles inside and immediately doesn't like what he sees :
Step inside the MCA and there, hanging from the ceiling, is an artwork titled A civilizacao occidental e crista (Western Christian Civilisation) by the Argentinian Leon Ferrari - depicting a crucified Christ attached to a US F-107 fighter aircraft.

This is presented as a critique of Western civilisation.

But what about the double standard involved?
Henderson now wants art works expressing 'the alternative view' to be presented in galleries and museums to counter the inherent Evil Pagan Lefty bias on display whenever artists create just about anything. He has some ideas :
...an artwork which showed the prophet Muhammad attached to, say, an Iranian missile.
Yes, exactly. Why not Buddha crucified on the space shuttle?

Henderson appears to have struck America-Hating, Evil Pagan Lefty Gold.
...left-wing alienation is alive and well and on show in contemporary Australia.
But then, damn, he starts going on about the menace of elderly Commies. Then World War I and how the Dardanelles slaughter of Australian soldiers (28,000 casualties) did not go down as the War-Hating Evil Pagan Lefties would have you believe. You tell 'em, Gerry :
Sure, the Dardanelles campaign was a military debacle. But it was devised with the best of intentions...
Aren't they all, Gerry? Aren't they all?
The contrast between the views of the alienated intelligentsia and the majority of Australians are seldom more evident than at times of international events.
Gerry's right. It should be Big Mo on an Iranian missile.