Posted on 09/17/2002 7:19:14 AM PDT by PJeffQ
Brit artist outrages 9/11 families
Families of Sept. 11 victims joined New York leaders in denouncing shock artist Damien Hirst yesterday after he contended Osama Bin Laden and his henchmen "need congratulating" for their "visually stunning" atrocity.
Hirst, who has made a fortune trotting out animal cadavers as conceptual art, says the World Trade Center attack was "kind of like an artwork in its own right."
"It was wicked," the British gallery huckster allowed in an interview with the BBC News Online. "But it was devised in this way for this kind of impact. It was devised visually. You've got to hand it to them on some level because they've achieved something which nobody would have ever have thought possible, especially to a country as big as America. So on one level they kind of need congratulating, which a lot of people shy away from, which is a very dangerous thing."
Hirst went on to say that any military action to stop more terrorist acts would be a mistake: "I think the thing to do is to stand up and say hang on a minute - this is people, these are bodies, these are lives. The surest way to make it happen again is to go and start throwing stones at somebody."
Asked for his reaction to Hirst's critique of the tragedy, Mayor Bloomberg told us: "The only thing that is stunning is the insensitivity of his remarks. I think New Yorkers would agree that it is completely inappropriate and offensive to make an analogy between an act of terror and a work of art."
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who took on Hirst in 1999 when he condemned the Brooklyn Museum of Art's "Sensation" show, said: "In light of the horrendous loss of innocent lives on Sept. 11, this is an utterly inhuman and indecent comment. It's another wretched indication of how some have perverted the term 'art.' "
Gov. Pataki called Hirst's remarks "a sick and grotesque distortion of art. Art is a celebration of beauty and creativity, while the terrorist attack was an act of pure evil. This guy should spend a few minutes with the families of those killed on 9/11. Then he will truly understand the impact of this horrible attack."
Virginia Bauer, who lost her husband, David, said Hirst was a "bizarre extremist," adding: "I think he deserves no response. You almost have to laugh. He's doing it for shock."
Sally Regenhard, who lost her son, a firefighter, said: "We should kick his butt into the demonic caves that those demonic barbarians crawled out of. Let him personally congratulate them. I really feel this is garbage, just like his art is. I'm calling on the art community to rise up."
It may happen. Hirst's New York art dealer, Larry Gagosian, told us: "I am shocked and angry to hear about Damien's irresponsible comment. This is a senseless and deeply offensive thing to say. Clearly, Damien owes us all a major apology."
Bear with me: in a sense, I agree with him. I'm not sure whether I can explain this properly.
One of the things that has bothered me most about the destruction of the WTC was its spectacular grandeur. The scale of the catastrophe was terrible. The enormous balls of fire, the gigantic columns of smoke, the way in which the collapsing buildings flowed like liquid down their own sides lent a perversity to the act that is unmatched by many disasters with larger death tolls.
It was mass murder as performance art, which is so much worse to behold than simple mass murder.
It reminds me of the legend of the woman who made lampshades with the skin of Jews slaughtered in the Holocaust. When we think of such a thing, it's comforting to picture the lampshades as looking like something out of the Flintstones, with ragged edges and perhaps bloodstains, the product of an uncivilized brute. How much more awful it is to picture instead a really pretty lampshade, gracefully executed by a skilled hand! Artistry is something that the civilized mind just does not want to associate with barbarism. When we see them together, our minds recoil.
Hannibal Lecter doesn't simply tear out someone's liver and gulp it down raw like an animal. No, he eats it at a table, with fava beans and a nice Chianti. The garnish amplifies the horror of the act.
If the fall of the towers hadn't been so beautiful, for lack of a better word, the tragedy would not have been as horrible.
There was an exception for an "artist" canning his own excrement hitherto; this fellow is unbothered by the likes of PETA, disgusting as he is.
Regards, Ivan
In my opinion, the art world came down with the same malady that infected the film and music worlds - somehow the aspiration to create grandeur was replaced with the desire to create shock value. Things have to be jarring rather than pleasing to the senses. And the jarring effect is intended to be continual, rather than to make a point. The sum total in the long run is that our arts are, in a word, crap.
Regards, Ivan
The collapse was spectacular (my preference) because the towers themselves were spectacular, as was their manmade environment: the Island of Manhattan. The world was the audience for the collapse thanks to worldwide television a product of (mostly) American technology, energy and business acumen.
The destruction of the towers was as much "art" as was the Talibans' destruction of those beautiful Buddhas in Afghanistan.
--Boris
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