Beth Cavener Stichter made a sculpture that is currently on display at the Chazen in Madison, Wisconsin, and her work fits into the first category mentioned. Read up on Stichter here.
Her work is being regarded as unfitting for a museum display and has created a sort of uproar in the Madison arts community. My opinion on the goat sculpture is that it is say something about the way we view homosexuals and the way that we treat people of different sexual preferences. Either way, it got me thinking about how far we can take our art? Do we have things to consider? Laws? People's feelings?
I would never post any work or present any in a gallery that might affect someone I know or put their personal life in a bad light. I often put my own life out on a limb to be poked and viewed. I'm just wondering, what is okay and what isn't okay? What can we say and what can we not say?
Where do we draw the line?
I actually read about this and thought it was fascinating. So much of Stichter's art is provocative, but I think that it is positively captivating. I'm definitely not an art student, but she tackles with human emotion so well in her works with the gentleness and almost serenity that animals possess that are kind of forgotten in human nature (e.g. homosexual relationships as seen in the piece that you are mentioning).
ReplyDeleteEthical values are so hard to consider because you never know what may offend someone, because virtually anything can. I see more harm in some of her other pieces than this one which to me (as a non-artist) just seems to symbolize the simplicity of love regardless of gender boundaries that we forget to see in our human world because of stereotypes, certain religions, and laws. I think that any type of art can be appropriate as long as it fits the occasion. Not that this has been helpful, just my thoughts! What do you think about the sculpture's place in the museum?
Carol
http://www.spaceblossom.blogspot.com
Carol- I think the sculpture definitely deserves it's place in the Chazen, and being surrounded by heterosexual work lifts it up just a little bit more. I am very interested in seeing it for myself.
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