Art has always had the power to shock.
From Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain to Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ, throughout history artworks addressing delicate social or religious themes have disturbed, scandalized and downright outraged audiences — and the student world is no exemption.
Just last week, officials at Rutgers University removed a work depicting Jesus fastened to a dartboard from an art exhibit on campus, after students and alumni took to social media to demand that the “disrespectful” work be taken down. The piece, titled Vitruvian Man, was one of a dozens of other unusual art works displayed around the library, including a condom-wrapped piles of coins, Towel of Babel, and a milk carton featuring a photo of Holocaust victim Anne Frank on its back called Cute Kids Make Good Advertising. God (Jesus?) only knows why these weren’t getting the same attention.
Granted, defending free speech against students and parents’ sensibilities is a balancing act for school administrators (and gratuitously blaspheming religious icons is really not the best way to refine one’s artistic chops.) However, displaying a student’s work in a public place is NOT the same thing as embracing its message — if such a message even exists.
For all the talk about encouraging students to express themselves freely, public institutions have caved in to knee-jerk outrage more than they’d like to admit. Is censorship the new normal?
Below are 5 examples.
1. Ku Klux Klansman at University of Iowa
In December 2014, a 7-foot sculpture depicting a Ku Klux Klan member covered in newspaper clips reporting racists incidents in US history showed up on the University of Iowa campus.
Originally intended as a statement against racism – the artist sought to raise awareness about organized prejudice — the piece was first defaced, then swiftly dismantled after students complained it was… you guessed it, racist.
2. School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC)’s Mirth and Girth
The SAIC campus found itself steeped in controversy in 1988 after student David K.Nelson unveiled his portrait of the recently deceased, first African American mayor of Chicago — Harold Washington — scantily clad in women’s lingerie, at a student art exhibit.
“Mirth & Girth” — named after a social club for overweight gay men –caused uproar almost as soon as it went up. Deemed insensitive and poorly timed given the racially charged climate, the satirical piece riled the African American community, and words of it eventually made their way to three City Council aldermen who ordered its removal.
After being taken into custody, it was finally returned to the artist — with a one-foot gash tearing across it. Nelson later filed a lawsuit against the city for violating his First Amendment rights when seizing and damaging the painting. He was awarded $95,000 in settlement.
3. Albany High School Bible Lesbians
When the Mormon Church announced earlier this year that children living with same-sex couple would not be able to participate in certain religious ceremonies, such as baptism, Albany High School sophomore Kyla Dullum felt she needed to do something about it.
As part of her school art project, she portrayed two women kissing on a background made of torn pages from the Mormon Bible.
“The intent was to make people uncomfortable and to bring attention to this issue,” Dullum told the school paper.
And uncomfortable they were. So much so that the school administration took it down, fearing Christian students would find it offensive or discriminatory.
4. Denver’s Tale of Two Hoodies
Another Ku Klux Klan mask-wearing man — this time a police officer — shown pointing his gun at a disarmed young back kid stirred outrage at Denver Public Schools a month ago. The piece was created by a 10th- grader and closely resembles Michael d’Antuono’s “A Tale of Two Hoodies ” inspired by the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin.
“This is not freedom of expression but an attempt to peddle hateful and racist trash as art! It is a racist message against police officers!” Butch Montoya, a former Denver safety manager, wrote in an e-mail to The Denver Post.
Results? Law enforcement: 1. Artistic freedom: 0.
5. Tennessee Rainbow Noose Art Project
Southern trees sometimes bear strange fruits. Officials at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville Tennessee received several complaints last week about colored nooses hanging on a tree near the fine arts building. The “deeply disturbing” rainbow-colored lassos turned out to be a part of a (short-lived) sculpture project.
While some students initially speculated on Twitter that the display was meant to bring attention to suicide rates in the LGBT community, the artist herself later explained that her intention was to address “the cycle of death and rebirth that is represented by the arrival of spring” and that she had “no social or political statements” in mind. Okaaaaay.
It took less than an hour before officers took it down “out of concern of hate symbolism and its potential impact to the campus” according to statement released by the university.
One more for the road?
This one’s not by an art student, but it’s too good to miss. Remember Tony Matelli’s freaky, hyper-realistic statue of a man sleepwalking on the Wellesley College campus? Distasteful? Arguably. Creepy? Conceivably. No one likes to be flashed tight whity undies on their way to a morning lecture, after all. But a trigger for sexual assault survivors? Really?
Despite the Change.org petition for the statue’s removal (for being a source of “apprehension, fear, and triggering thoughts”) reaching almost 600 signatures, museum director Lisa Fischman defended its placement, stating:
“Art has an extraordinary power to evoke personal response, and to elicit the unexpected […] As the best art does, Tony Matelli’s work provokes dialogue, and discourse is the core of education. In that spirit, I am enormously glad to have your response.
Respectfully yours,
Lisa Fischman, Ruth Gordon Shapiro ’37 Director of the Davis.”
