[MacMattico]

The “clearly” stated intent of the artist was not given until after he received world wide criticism for this work, before that he had stated several different reasons for the piece.

Sister Wendy Beckett's view is that it is a representation of what we have done to Christ today. I'm Catholic but that doesn't mean bringing out one nun that started studying art in her 50’s and is now called a “renowned art critic” changes that Piss Christ is trash. In fact pissing on anything has never seemed to me as representative of anything, it is a literal act with specific meaning.

[texanred]

The clearly stated intent of the artist was given in a written artists statement presented before the work was displayed. This is standard procedure. Did he give other possible interpretations? Yes he did. So do I. “Versatility” and “multivalent” are keywords to having your work shown. Over literalism and single line of interpretation work is generally scrapped as uninteresting.

I didn't trot out Sister Wendy to appease Catholics. I'm a fan of her meditations and spirituality so i reached for her interpretation. There are dozens of other highly religious critics that have tackled it if you consider hers substandard because she started public criticism late in life.

As well - you says it's a literal act with specific meaning. He literally did not urinate on it. The urine was carefully collected and lit a very specific way in an attempt to look beautiful. See above about literalism and single avenue interpretations.