Shock Therapy

I am an artist. That is not a disclaimer or a boast; it is a statement of position. I theorise in the undeniable importance of art and the futility of censorship. I likewise believe that art is one of the best indicators of the mood of a culture. Scholars, doctors, therapists, and lawyers can attempt to explain us to ourselves, but their testimony, go game useful, will almost always be dry and absent in emotional depth. I am proud to slip by in defense of a group that predates and outlasts all other(a) schoolmaster analysts of the human condition-creators of art. Chris Ofili is one member of this oft-abused group. His 1996 work,The Holy double-dyed(a) Mary, depicts the classic Christian motion picture with a nonrealistic black pose preceding(prenominal) swirling, sequined green and blue patterns and one capable nipple composed of dried elephant dung. Cutouts of photographs of womens buttocks and genitals splosh the flat coat of the canvas. The disturbing elemen ts of this piece are all found in ambivalence-the audience is not sure how to react. To begin with, the numerosity of media, just about of them quite unusual-sequins, oil, collage, and elephant dung-makes the piece a bit unlike from tralatitious visual works and thwarts our desire to categorize. Is it painting, sculpture, collage, garbage, or something else completely?

The name brings into play the most powerful set of heathenish prejudices in the world, organized religion. Does Ofili honor the Virgin or malign her? The caricaturized African wide mouth and nose on a think typically drawn as Caucasian adjure a potential racial slur t o blacks (the Negro caricature) or whites (t! he self-assertion that Mary was white). Finally, the juxtaposition of a mainstream religious icon and a serious art-museum context with two very marginalized elements of life, tool body waste and pornography, creates a shock that strikes at the very shopping center of Americas quixotic relationship with morality. At the cusp of a immature century, America is, for the first time, reexamining the...If you want to get a panoptic essay, order it on our website: BestEssayCheap.com

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