A photograph showing an obese woman vomiting has been removed from an art exhibition in Warwickshire after people complained that it was offensive.Hmm, offensive art, eh..? That meme seems to be spreading.
It’s nice to see it bite one of the ‘we are all going to get fat and die!’ merchants though, this time.
The four removed images include a picture of an obese, naked man sitting at a computer, another obese, naked man whose skin overhangs the chair he is sitting on, a photo of an obese woman vomiting and another photo of an obese, naked woman eating cake.Predictably, the creator of these masterpieces is a bit overwrought:
Artist John Yeadon said he was being censored and had not been consulted about the removal of his work.Poor baby! Never mind. You can always flog it to the NHS for their next campaign. Better do it quick, before the money runs out…
Mr Yeadon, a former fine arts lecturer at Coventry University, said: "There was no discussion on this, the work was just removed, censored and then nobody came to explain why."
Some typical comments left about the exhibition in the centre's visitor book said: "This isn't art" and "this is disgusting next to a veggie cafe, no way is this artistic".And I always thought ‘art’ was whatever the artist decreed it was…
Ah, well. Perhaps those pictures of cleft-paleted Third World moppets used by charities in every newspaper and magazine can now be challenged on the grounds of ‘inappropriateness’..?
8 comments:
The clash of the sensibility cults - almost as good as dog-fighting.
So John Yeadon (who we seem to be paying for) has been prevented by Bath Place Community Venture manager Steve Bayliss (who we also see to be paying for) from displaying his "art" (which presumeably we're paying for as well).
Sounds like three more entries for Nick Cleggs Repeal Bill.
If it was a half a fatty in a box it'd have won awards.
I read years ago a sic-fi story, can't remember who by, about a planet where there is always a shortage of food. The protagonist visits, and they say they'll show him their most obscene pornography.
When he finally sits in the cinema, it is films of people stuffing their faces with food.
The reaction to fatness is of course merely an aspect of the intensely puritan society we are plunging into. Obscenity is over-indulgence, and people develop a visceral gut reaction (haha!) to what they perceive as its symptoms. (Just as, a devout muslim I once worked with felt utterly repulsed and physically sick at the thought of eating ham or pork; that had been programmed into him by his society).
So, as with porn in a sexually repressed society, puritans are both repulsed and fascinated by food in a gastronomically ascetic society. Hence the reactions described here. "Next to a veggie cafe?!" What, a porn shop next to a church! Unthinkable!
I try to stand back and take a philosophical and even historical view of the descending madness. But sometimes, I weep for what might have been, and what instead will be.
Pictures of fly-infested, kwashiorkor-suffering, snotty-nosed kids from other continents are not appropriate pictures for newspapers or magazines.
Such pictures I find offensive and thus I wish to have them banned.
OK?
"The clash of the sensibility cults..."
Indeed! *gets popcorn, with extra salt*
"Sounds like three more entries for Nick Cleggs Repeal Bill."
Yup! Get the axe!
"If it was a half a fatty in a box it'd have won awards."
Sadly, that's probably true!
"The reaction to fatness is of course merely an aspect of the intensely puritan society we are plunging into."
And dressing it up as 'health concerns' and 'budgetary implications' is the perfect disguise, ian't it?
"Such pictures I find offensive and thus I wish to have them banned.
OK?"
I'm with you on that!
Obese woman vomiting? Any Friday night in A*****r. Or P********h.
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