Remember Dartboard Jesus? Well those wailing “persecution!” won, naturally. Does it ever go any differently? The reasoning for removing it are transparently specious, to say the least.
The artwork was removed from the library on April 21 by campus officials following the slew of complaints.
“The artwork in question was removed from the exhibit because it did not meet Rutgers University Libraries policy, which requires art exhibitions and their pieces to be based on university events, curricular offerings and topics of interest to the university community,” Jessica Pellien, director of communications at Rutgers University Libraries, told NJ.com.
The dartboard was not the only questionable piece of art up for display in the Rutgers Art Library.
Other pieces included a condom-covered stack of coins and a milk carton featuring Anne Frank titled “Cute Kids Make Good Advertising,” NJ.com reported.
No names are attached to the art pieces and University officials did not out the artist.
So, no one is going to feel persecuted over the tower of babel? (That’s the title of the condom covered stack of coins.) For as much as the grotesque imagery of a [temporarily] dead guy onna stick looms large in all things Catholic, you’d think a dead guy on a dartboard wouldn’t be so bothersome. It’s still their dead guy, right? How easily is faith shaken. Tsk.
The full article is here.
Of course, an idiot from Fox just had to spill with pompous persecution puffery:
I’ve often wondered why the artistic class seems compelled to denigrate and desecrate the Sacred.
Remember the exhibit that featured the Mother Mary smeared in elephant dung? Or what about the crucifix submerged in a bottle of urine?
And yet, the God of the Islamic Radicals is off limits. It’s as if there is some sort of unwritten rule – thou shalt not profane the prophet.
I suspect the fear of a fatwa plays a significant role in their editorial process. And I can understand that.
Nobody wants to be blown to smithereens – event an idealistic, starving artist.
But I have another theory.
Maybe, just maybe American artists give the God of the Islamic Radicals a pass out of mutual respect. The enemy of my enemy…
One wages jihad with a sword. The other wages jihad with a paint brush.
A person gets the idea that Todd Starnes doesn’t pay much attention to what artists do at all. In fairness, paying attention to what artists (and people in general) do, including all the artistic commentary on Mohammed would be work. And it would require a working brain. The brainless commentary is here. Now I feel like I should dip my computer in bleach.
People whose religion’s main symbol is a device designed and used to kill by torture, object to an artwork of a man being tortured? They’m a tad lacking in the introspection department, methinks.
Talking of which…
Like any librarian, I would politely tell Hugh Hefner that he can display his literature elsewhere (7-Eleven, Amazon, Borders). Why the Rutgers librarian had a difficult time here is beyond me.
Did that piece really require a working brain?
waltermcc #3
What makes you think that the Rutgers librarian objected to the dartboard?
waltermcc @ 3:
Like any librarian? You speak for all librarians? I had no idea. The librarians I have known have all been very smart, expansive people, with great senses of humour. Well, until now I guess. No librarian disapproved of the piece, that’s why it was on display in the first place. It was school officials who decided it must go.
As for the piece requiring a working brain, yes, I think it does. It’s evocative, it certainly provokes thought, and it gets one hell of a reaction. All stuff art should do. Of course, I’m speaking as an artist, not a librarian, so…
What Hefner has to do with this, I don’t know. However, the human body is one of the major foundations of art throughout history. You wouldn’t find me dissing it.
Once again trying to subscribe. Did not seem to work yesterday.
Morgan:
Not sure what you’re trying to do, but if you scroll all the way down the sidebar, you can subscribe to the blog via email.
Thank you. I did not see that.
There’s also an RSS feed, for fogies like me who still use such things.