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Who’d have thought that Montana was a place for a crowbar attack in the name of religious outrage? Um … definitely not me. And yet, it happened.
56-year-old Kathleen Folden of Kalispell faces criminal mischief charges for apparently trying to beat the shit out of a piece of artwork that may or may not show Jesus Christ getting head from another guy while the word “orgasm” floats next to his head. The 12-panel lithograph “The Misadventures of the Romantic Cannibals” suffered slight tearing as the result of Folden’s, uh, religious crusade.
[“The Misadventures of the Romantic Cannibals”] has triggered protests and even calls to police by critics asking for an investigation into whether it violates a Colorado law that protects children from obscenity, the Loveland Reporter Herald reported. The city attorney determined it did not.
Witnesses told the Reporter-Herald that Folden entered the Loveland Museum Gallery, used a crowbar to break glass over the art and ripped the print.
Mark Michaels, an area art dealer, told Denver’s KUSA-TV that he …
… tried to stop her adding that the woman screamed: “How can you desecrate my Lord?”
Wow, lady … it’s a good thing you weren’t looking at Salvador Dali … or menstrual art.
Police spokesman Andy Hiller said the work by Stanford University professor Enrique Chagoya has a tear in the panel with the depiction of Christ. The piece is part of an 82-print exhibit by 10 artists who have worked with Colorado printer Bud Shark.
Chagoya says he’s sad that his book and the First Amendment were attacked.“Should we as artists, or any free-thinking people, have to be subjected to fear of violent attacks for expressing our sincere concerns? I made a collage with a comic book and an illustration of a religious icon to express the corruption of something precious and spiritual,” Chagoya told FoxNews.com. “There is no nudity, or genitals, or explicit sexual contact shown in the image. There is a dressed woman, a religious icon’s head, a man showing his tongue, and a skull of a Pope in the upper right corner of the controversial page. I did not make a picture of Christ. I used symbols as one would use words in a sentence to critique corruption of the sacred by religious institutions.”
And isn’t this really what art is all about? Call me crazy, but I think Folden took this all a bit too far. I mean, yeah, clearly the religious images were impossible to ignore, but at one point does the line between art and offensive bilk (yes, I just used the word bilk) grow fuzzy enough to bring out crowbars?
Jesus Christ!
And Chagoya makes a very interesting point about both religious freedom and the idea of peace being the underlying message taught by Christ, Mohammed, and Buddha.
“I am amazed that some of the followers don’t adhere to the teachings. Agree to disagree and love thy neighbor,” he said.
There was no question, by the way, that Chagoya’s art would raise some hackles.
Police said the incident was the first disturbance since protesters began gathering this week outside the city-owned museum about 50 miles north of Denver. About 100 people packed the Loveland City Council meeting Tuesday night to support and oppose removing Chagoya’s work.
The council decided to leave the art in place.
You know, there has been much made in recent years of the religious undertones of works by Leonardo da Vinci, for example, and isn’t this in a way akin to breaking into the Louvre and beating the shit out of the “The Last Supper” with a hammer?
I mean, at what point do people need to recognize the freedom of religion to practice peacefully—or to dissent against, again with that operative word “peacefully”?
Chagoya says he hopes people realize that “only totalitarian societies are ruled by extreme rules.”
“Do we want to live as if under Stalin or Hitler who censored not only the arts but all levels of thinking?,” he said. “This is America, but I don’t take my rights for granted. I know they can easily be taken away by hate and extremism. Let’s exchange ideas not insults, or labels. We all want this world to be a better place to live in, not a place where we live in fear of angry disagreements that will take us nowhere.”
Could this piece of art be considered offensive to some practicing Christians? Sure, I can see that. Does that give this woman the right to attack it with a blunt object? Hells fucking no.
We live in strange times, particularly in terms of religion, and I think this Montana nutjob is only perpetuating this with such violent actions. You could arguably compare her actions to those of extremists in any religion …
And that is a very serious problem.
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I know it’s pedantic, but Da Vinci’s The Last Supper isn’t in the Louvre. It’s a mural in Milan.
That said, this woman is a loon. You don’t have the right not to be offended. You have the right to say ‘I am offended.’ Everyone else has the right to tell you to shut up and deal.
Ugh people who attempt to destroy that by which they are offended are nothing more than intolerant vandals. Art is one of our most important mediums for expressing social commentary, even when it is painful to look at. If you are that offended by a piece, perhaps you need to examine where such a strong reaction is coming from instead of lashing out.
Freedom of speech is one of our most important rights in the U.S. I’m not surprised, however, that such a fanatically religious person is unaware of that. It seems that many fundamentalist Christians are the ones who have the most trouble understanding another right we hold dear, the freedom of religion (especially non-Christian religion). You’d think that people who manage to spit out entire bible passages from memory wouldn’t have so much trouble remembering or understanding the central tenets of our country, especially when the document that contains them is so short comparatively.
I grew up just north of Kalispell. Sadly, this doesn’t surprise me one bit. This is a state where the hypocrisy of the Tea Party is blatantly embraced (no government spending except for the disability, social security, Medcaid and Medicare I get), where they’re trying to outlaw homosexuality outright, and where the state’s mentality is one of isolationism and suspicion.
It didn’t used to be this way, but in the last 10 years, Montana has become fucking scary.
Oops, you’re absolutely right, Leah … that’s the last time I’ll ask my mom where world famous art is located (I was planning on using the “Mona Lisa” as an example, hence the Louvre reference remaining)
They’re not actually trying to outlaw it. In fact a Republican is trying to get the outdated law taken off the books…nice try though.
^That was supposed to be a reply to jeneria.
“We live in strange times, particularly in terms of religion, and I think this Montana nutjob is only perpetuating this with such violent actions. You could arguably compare her actions to those of extremists in any religion …”
.
Let’s be realistic here. Yes, the woman’s an idiot, and has the right to protest, but not to violence. But comparing with other extremists?
.
Had this person instead included in the artwork an image of the prophet Muhammad in such circumstances, he would not have a tear in the paper, but a hole in his head. Perhaps his chest. This woman may have been an idiot for attacking the artwork, but she didn’t go after people.
.
.
“And Chagoya makes a very interesting point about both religious freedom and the idea of peace being the underlying message taught by Christ, Mohammed, and Buddha.
“I am amazed that some of the followers don’t adhere to the teachings. Agree to disagree and love thy neighbor,” he said.”
While peace may be included, that is not the fundamental message of any of the three (buddha more disputable than the others), and to narrow the teachings down to those two lines just shows great unfamiliarity.
(Not to suggest that Jesus would approve of attacking artwork… actually, could one compare blasphemous artwork to moneylenders in the temple? Very debatable. Anyways, irrelevant.)
I’d just like to make the point that this incident didn’t happen in Montana. It happened in Loveland, CO, the perp is a truck driver from Montana.
I honestly don’t think that woman was correct. Perhaps in her mind, she was a revolutionary and I can respect that.
But as an artist, you MUST be prepared for this sort of reaction, especially when one creates controversial art. I mean, isn’t that the point, making people think, getting them upset?
I’d be stoked if someone was so upset by my art that they destroyed it. It means it did it’s job, getting someone to actually act on their ideas instead of complaining about it. Or demonstrating the point I was making anyway
The moral of this story is, If you don’t want your art crow-barred, stick to painting puppies and sunsets.
The law banning homosexuality has been on the Montana books for decades. In 1996, we, the voters of Montana, voted to have the law removed from the books and to make homosexuality legal. For some reason, the law was never actually removed and now the Republicans want the law enforced because it was never removed. Nice try, though.
Uh, no dear. I linked like 3 articles in the Zelda post about this. They actually aren’t trying to enforce it, and do want it taken off the books. I’m not sure why we’re talking about this except that you seem to want Montana to be a bad place full of psycho redneck Christians who hate gays.
Erin I’m sure we could tit for tat, match article for article and still never agree. I grew up in Montana. I lived there until I was in my late-20’s. My parents still live there and I go back often. I have friends that still live there. I know for a fact that outside of Missoula and possibly Bozeman, it is a hateful place full of survivalist (not really redneck) born again Christians. That’s why I left and that’s why I won’t go back.