A commissioned video made by an American artist has been slashed from a Berlin art show for — well, for being ambiguous, I suppose.
The 2 1/2-minute video by Boston-based artist Jonathon Hexner shows him painting the words "I like America & America likes me" — outlining the letters with a fuse and then lighting the fuse, creating black smoke.
The show's co-curator told the Associated Press
"[W]e did a test run, and the impression that emerged was alarming. Sept. 11 terror attacks, every cliché, but not the meaning of the work itself, came across." [..] Hexner said no one mentioned the Sept. 11 attacks as a reason for not displaying his video, but that he was told it was being interpreted as anti-American.
NPR reports that
The apparent reason for the withdrawal is fear that the general public may not understand the nuances of the piece and could possibly be incited to do something bad.
That's deeper down the rabbit hole than I care to go.
By the way, am I way off-base when I ponder the possibility that fear of a certain crowd of hyper-excitable religious hooligans might have contributed to the withdrawal of Hexner's video? "I like America & America likes me" is, after all, a sentiment sure to infuriate you-know-who.
See the controversial artwork here.
What I object to is spending taxpayer money on this sort of thing. You can be as artistic, as progressive, as obscure, as downright go-to-hell offensive as you like, says I.
Just keep your hand out of my pocket while you're doing it.
Posted by: Martin Owens | Sunday, October 15, 2006 at 11:10 AM