Monday, June 16, 2008

Once You Go Barack...

This afternoon on the radio, I heard some rumblings about an offensive Barack Obama Assassination exhibit that was in New York across the street from the New York Times entrance. I did a little investigating and if you haven't heard or seen it here's what it's all about:

[On June 4th] A Boston-born performance artist, Yazmany Arboleda, tried to set up a provocative art exhibition in a vacant storefront on West 40th St. in Midtown Manhattan with the title, “The Assassination of Hillary Clinton/The Assassination of Barack Obama,” in neatly stenciled letters on the plate glass windows at street level. By 9:30 a.m., New York City police detectives and Secret Service agents had shut down the exhibition, and building workers had quickly covered over the inflammatory title with large sheets of brown paper and blue masking tape. The gallery is across the street from the southern entrance to The New York Times building.

Arboleda, who is 27, said in an interview: “It’s art. It’s not supposed to be harmful. It’s about character assassination — about how Obama and Hillary have been portrayed by the media.” He added, “It’s about the media.” “The exhibition is supposed to be about character assassination. It’s philosophical and metaphorical.” (source)

Check it out. What do you think about "art" imitating life?

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