Team Assignment: Controversial Art and Art Records of History

Directions: As a team, find two pieces of controversial art and two works of art that somehow recorded a bit of history; blog it and be ready to show and discuss with class the history and controversy your team found.

Daniel Edwards' "Monument to Pro-Life: The Birth of Sean Preston" is a depiction of Britney Spears giving birth to one of her sons. Fun, right? Mr. Edwards said he created the piece as a call to attention to the Anti-Abortion Movement in America; he has the support of The Manhattan Right To Life Committee. It is controversial because it has "sexified" the natural aspect of giving birth; opponents were concerned that this statue would lead young girls to experiment with sex far earlier than normal. The piece was premiered at Brooklyn's Capla Kesting Fine Art.

What do you get when you take elephant dung, up close snapshots of female genitalia and the Virgin Mary? You get a lawsuit if you're the creator of the piece of work entitled: The Holy Virgin Mary. Chris Ofili, the artist, is a talented guy from Manchester, England. He happens to enjoy going back to his African roots by implementing the usage of elephant dung in his paintings. He also like to counter how the Black population has been seen as a whole in blaxplotation films ("Foxy Brown", "Shaft" and the like). He built his pieces up in layers, a collage of effects. Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, fought tooth and nail to have Ofili's The Holy Virgin Mary from being presented at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. He, along with members of the Catholic Diocese of New York, brought suit against Ofili and the museum. The basis for their lawsuit had to do with not just pornographic material, but slander as well. The pornographic card came into play due to Ofili creating cherubs and seraphrims (angels) out of female gentatiles. It was thought that the painting incited such hatred, that you had to sign in to view the piece in 1999.

Joseph Leibovic is the founder of L.A Pop Art, a company that creates a new way to see life and art by not just showing a photo, but also by creating said photo with words. In our group's case, we chose the tribute to September 11, 2001: World Trade Center, to use as one of our pieces of art that has recorded history. Upon seeing the piece up close (or enlarging in our case), you are able to make at all 2,819 lives lost in the Towers that fateful day.


For our last piece of art that is a record of history, we have chosen Nickelback's "If Everyone Cared". The song resonates the fact that if we all decide to make a difference, we can, even if we're just one person... one person can easily turn into two and two can easily transition into 35, 000. As you listen to the words, also pay attention to the footage they implemented into their video; for some, this is the first time they have witnessed snippets of history.