A top Moscow gallery bowed to religious sensibilities and pulled an exhibit that combined two potent symbols of Russia -- a gold icon and black caviar -- local media reported on Thursday.
Churchgoers had appealed to the state Tretyakov gallery, objecting to "Icon-Caviar", which depicts hundreds of tiny fish eggs where the face should be on an icon, saying it was trivial and insulting.
The artist, Alexander Kosolapov, told Ekho Moskvy radio that his work was in no way religious: "The icon frame -- that's a metaphor for Russia. The caviar, that's also a metaphor."
Ha! We think it's offensive if you use an offensive material to depict the sacred image. But if you had to argue that it's worse to use caviar than to use elephant dung, couldn't you?
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The Icon is a symbol for Russia? Who is he kidding? The Icon is a symbol of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Icon is a valued symbol even outside of Russia.
It sounds to me that he changed it to "Russia" in his mind after everyone got so mad.
Gee I wonder what would happen if I used a material offensive to native Zimbabweans to create an iimage of whatever deity(ies) they worship?
I blame Duchamp for this -- and the critics who were and are too cowed to decry this kind of junk.
Well, in certain African cultural traditions (including, if I'm getting this right, the one where the artist in Brooklyn was from), cow dung was a symbol of veneration, so... yeah, I think I could. Assuming caviar has no similar connotations.
The trickier question would be: Assuming some New York politician was choosing to be wilfully blind to any cultural implications outside his own, could you shake him of his convictions?
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