Posted on 12/13/2007 9:38:37 PM PST by camerakid400
LONDON - An artist is inviting Londoners to come face-to-face with the wretched labour of one of India's lowest castes - by filling an art gallery with 21 big blocks of human excrement.
The monoliths are the brainchild of Santiago Sierra, whose previous work includes pumping a former German synagogue full of poisonous car exhaust (visitors wore gas masks) and an attempt to write the word "Submission" in giant, flaming letters near the U.S.-Mexico border.
Elena Crippa, curator at the Lisson Gallery where the work is being displayed, said the Spanish-born artist's intention is to confront audiences with the horror of the scavengers, the so-called untouchables who have traditionally cleaned private toilets and outhouses in India.
The human waste used in the exhibit was gathered from the Indian cities of Delhi and Jaipur by volunteers working for Sulabh International, a human rights organization devoted to helping improve the lives of scavengers.
The muck was left to sit for three years before being mixed with plastic, moulded into man-sized blocks and shipped to Britain, by which point, Crippa said, it was the sanitary equivalent of dirt.
Sierra's work often seems tailor-made to incite disgust or outrage. Past stunts include spraying workers with toxic polyurethane foam or paying drug-addicted prostitutes for the right to tattoo lines on their backs.
catalogue distributed by the gallery suggested the slabs of excrement were meant to shock by bringing the scavengers' work "too close for comfort."
"As long as exploitation remains on the other side of the glass, we can quietly rest our heads on our pillows, clutching a fair trade chocolate bar in our fist," it said.
Art from excrement has a long pedigree. In 1961, Italian Piero Manzoni produced 90 cans of "Artist's (Poo)," each labelled as containing one ounce of "freshly preserved" material. In 1999, British artist Chris Ofili's rendition of the Virgin Mary on a canvas spattered with elephant dung brought protest when it went on display with other sensational works at The Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York.
Sierra's work is on a different scale. His 21 dark, crackled (and odourless) monuments are lined up like headstones. Although their power seems muted in the gallery's harsh white space, visitors interviewed still seemed impressed, if not exactly shocked, by his choice of material.
"I don't think it's the shock factor - that's not what this is about," said Claire Poulter, a 19-year-old art student from London. "It's about the fact that it was human made in both senses of the word."
London's Evening Standard was unimpressed by Sierra's fecal moulds, saying his work was beginning to lose its ability to shock.
"Remove the human element and not only does his work not pack a punch, it's also losing its ability to surprise: increasingly, viewers are confronted by a case of diminishing returns," the newspaper said.
So I’m thinking this was going to be
something about using human waste for
energy. Nope. Just a waste of energy.
I’m wondering who, in the long term, is gonna feel stupider.
The guy who made it, or the guy who buys it.
I was thinking of buying it for my garden.
“Here I sit, broken hearted...
Paid my dime and only arted!”
Not even close...
Finally, an exhibit which gives another meaning to my long time sarcastic saying:
“I don’t know much about art, but I know crap when I see it.”
Very good!
Fits pretty well with what the commie manifesto says about art, though.
This is a rich boy that people listen to because he is rich. If a person stopped you in the street and told you the same thing would you have the time of day for him? No. Would you be worshiping at his shrine? No. People who depend on his money do. Simple as that. (And there should be the standard wall of piss that companies this work otherwise the coffee table books will seem strangely incomplete)
Please come check out our exhibition sometime.
I have thought for years that a lot of “art” is crap. This just lives down to my expectations.
Its nasty & gross & IMHO not worth going to look at. If I want to see poop I can see my own. lmao. I don’t need to see feces from any other person or country. Just very strange to me...ART? Not IMHO.
art ping
We know where Santiago's head is, if this work is his brainchild.
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