Obama Christ Baracks Chicago
posted 3rd April 2007 in Barack Obama, Democrats, Election 2008, Media, Religion, State and Local by Peregrin Wood
New Yorkers like to deride Chicago as a hick town, culturally inferior to the cutting edge of Manhattan. Yet, when it comes to a pair of recent artistic controversies, Chicago comes out on top of New York City.
When New York City was confronted with an exhibition of a sculpture made of chocolate, depicting Jesus crucified, the show was shut down. New York City, full of outraged sentiment that one might have expected from the Bible Belt, just couldn’t hack it.
Chicago, on the other hand, has responded to a similar sculpture with interest, but not rejection. At the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, student David Cordero made a sculpture that depicts Barack Obama as Jesus.
Cordero describes the sculpture of Obama Christ as “a response to what I’ve been witnessing and hearing, this idea that Barack is sort of a potential savior that might come and absolve the country of all its sins… In a lot of ways it’s about caution in assigning all these inflated expectations on one individual, and expecting them to change something that many hands have shaped.”
Kudos to this thoughtful young artist. That’s a good description of the cultural phenomenon of Barack Obama, and his sculpture is a provocative response to it.
Fortunately, the Art Institute of Chicago is willing to support David Cordero’s artistic platform as a student at its school. Unfortunately, the school administration isn’t willing to acknowledge the worth of its support. Bruce Jenkins, the dean of Cordero’s program at the school, commented apologetically on Cordero’s sculpture by saying, “When you see it, when you spend time with it, you understand that it’s not a provocative work at all.”
Not provocative? In the art world, that ought to stand as an insult.
Besides, Barack Obama doesn’t agree with Bruce Jenkins. Obama finds the sculpture quite provocative. One of Obama’s spokespeople explained that Obama thinks that the sculpture “offends religious sensibilities”, although Obama supports the Cordero’s First Amendment right to free speech.
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Let me get this straight. Some kid in an art school makes a lifesize caricature that looks like Howdy Doody and says it’s Obama. Then he slaps a halo on it at an awkward angle and says he thinks people want Obama to “absolve the country of all its sins”. Say, what? How is this news? The real story is why someone at the Associated Press thinks that warrants calling (1) the office of the Catholic church and (2) Obama’s office.
You might want to quote Obama’s spokeswoman correctly too. Nowhere does it say that Obama finds the statue “provocative”, that he has an opinion about it, or that he has even seen it. Here’s what she said:
That’s a very diplomatic thing to say about someone who’s just made an unflattering statue of your boss.
So what’s this “absolve” thing that’s supposed to be so profound as to warrant the AP’s attentions? “Absolve” means “to pronounce clear of guilt or blame or to relieve of a requirement or obligation.”
http://www.bartleby.com/61/75/A0027500.html
Is that what Obama is about? Is that his voting record? No. He voted against the Military Commissions Act and supports the Geneva convention. Those are the positions of someone who wants America to stand up for its obligation to freedom and justice, not someone who is looking for excuses for continued unacceptable behavior.
This story makes about as much political sense as the stories about his middle name. Probably came from the same place too.