The cartoon that elicited the death threats — which seems unconnected to this car crash — depicted the head of Muhammad on the body of a dog.
From Vilks's Wikipedia page:
From 1997 to 2003, he was a professor in art theory at the Bergen National Academy of the Arts. As an art theorist, Vilks was a proponent of the institutional theory of art....
The link on those last 4 words goes to another Wikipedia page says: "The institutional theory of art... holds that an object can only become art in the context of the institution known as 'the artworld."
Back to the main Vilks page:
In 1980 Vilks created two sculptures, Nimis and Arx, the former made entirely of drift wood and the latter of concrete and rock, in the Kullaberg nature reserve in Höganäs, Skåne. In 1996, the small area where the sculptures are located was proclaimed by Vilks as an independent country, "Ladonia".
Nimis was sold to Joseph Beuys as a means to circumvent the Swedish building code laws concerning unlawful building process. The sculpture of Nimis was owned by the late conceptual artist Christo....
Vilks' long-standing controversies with different authorities due to his activities in the nature reserve Kullaberg, where Nimis, Arx, and Landonien are all located, received significant attention in Swedish media, which for the most part portrayed Vilks' work as specifically designed to be provocative. This attention has turned the area into something of a tourist attraction.
In Vilks' activity as an art theorist, he commented on his own artistic activities in the second or third person..... He described himself as an "equal opportunity offender" in his critical depictions of religion.
In 2007, Vilks caused an international controversy when he depicted Muhammad as a roundabout dog...
What is a roundabout dog? Wikipedia has a page for that:
In Sweden, especially around 2006, people put dog sculptures like that in roundabouts (a roundabout being what we tend to call a traffic circle or a rotary).
What is the meaning of a roundabout dog and what does it have to do with Muhammad? Is it chiefly meaninglessness — just something that's there... to delight or bother you, depending on who you are?
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27 comments:
can i just say YES to the concept of a roundabout dog?
That dog won’t bother people here… unless you put a NASCAR garage door rope around the dog’s neck. 😲
In the end, the world is much better off with a few really seriously cantankerous people to help the rest of us see the absurdity of many "serious" things. I believe Mr. Viks counts as cantankerous.
He sort of reminds me of a local home owner who declared his property a sovereign nation and fought it in courts for years to avoid property taxes. The best part was that he also rented out part of the property to the US Postal Service for a small post office!
Islam sure seems to be a cult, a religious heresy, a political system of by and for insecure people. Their response to "insults to Islam" make sensible people think they worry about being recognized as having no legitimate basis for their authoritarianism. Who else responds like that to non-members of their group? Oh, yeah, Pooh-Xi's CCP.
Seems that those who live in irrational belief systems can't stand ridicule.
I say, ridicule them more, until they either reform their beliefs or at least stop whining violently about being ridiculed.
I wonder how much money there is in the epater les bourgeiosie school of art. Can't be much if nobody ever heard of you, so I guess it pays to be provocative. And Mohammed as a dog, ape, whatever, was hot then. So....
I wonder how much money there is in the epater les bourgeiosie school of art. Can't be much if nobody ever heard of you, so I guess it pays to be provocative. And Mohammed as a dog, ape, whatever, was hot then. So....
"What's a roundabout dog?"
Apparently enough to start a war for some.
I thought I had read about Nimis somewhere, and couldn't remember where. A Google search reminded me. There's an Atlas Obscura entry on Nimis. It includes the amusing story of people from Pakistan trying to immigrate to this fake micronation.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/nimis
On the subject of Christo, I've seen a lot of disdain shown for him posthumously, especially due to the wrapping of the Arc de Triomphe. I think he was a genius. I've loved almost everything he's done.
Sounds like he's dead in a roundabout way...
I was thinking roundabout pig next time...
I can't remember ever seeing a visual representation of Mohammed. So how does anyone know it's supposed to be him?
Not mentioned in the article was the name of the truck driver: Mohammed al Tehrani. Probably just a coincidence.
Nimis and Arx, along with the dogs, look like something kids might enjoy making.
Top Places in Sweden
The Nose Academy
"[T]he Nose Academy is a collection of more than 100 plaster casts of noses belonging to ... Scandinavians."
Now if only drivers would just learn how to navigate a rotary correctly all would be well.
"Molly Norris... Molly Norris? Anyone here named Molly Norris?"
No one here anymore. She didn't get body guards so that she might maintain an American life, she was told to take a new identity and be erased. Our Islam-groveling President Obama's FBI bravely stood for making sure this heretic of Islam would never be heard from again. Is she alive anymore? Who knows?
What is creepy about this news is the nature of the accident, makes me wonder if one of the bodyguards was driving, and was he an Islamist plant, who intentionally killed himself and them all.
Islamists are in a seriously longer game, and much more determined, than we are, and so is China. Perhaps it will be their matchups that will busy the globe now as we sink into oblivion.
I hate that my generation owns this. But yeah, let's laugh at goofy dog art in the traffic circles, that's the big illuminating point, right?
The prophet Muhammed disdained dogs as unclean, and his followers follow along. To be rendered as a dog is a specific insult in the context.
It's just like that guy to miss the beneficial symbiotic relationship between human and canine that rational people exploit.
Is anyone else wondering, what exactly was the 75 year old doing in a police vehicle? Was he still under police protection due to his artistics works with Muhammad?
Was the police vehicle speeding? Were they trying to get away from any threats? Or was it just dumb luck the truck killed them all?
Temujin said...
"What's a roundabout dog?"
Apparently enough to start a war for some.
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does not look like a waggable dog
The Muhammad send up is much more offensive to dogs.
would the cartoon have worked to provoke MUSLIM ANGER if head was dog and body human but titled dog with Muhammad body?
my understanding is Islamic Prohibition is about depicting visage likeness
NYPost has full article with no paywall.
For those wishing a fuller account of life, times & death of Lars, Mark Steyn has an excellent column. https://www.steynonline.com/11733/a-hero-and-a-hoot
"depicted the head of Muhammad on the body of a dog."
No way to treat a dog.
Strange how I cannot find a site, including this one, that has republished the cartoon in question.
Yes, well, let's have the names of those cops.
"Strange how I cannot find a site, including this one, that has republished the cartoon in question."
The Mark Steyn steynonline.com post linked to above has it.
The Steyn post raises many interesting questions . . . And not just about Vilks's end.
Mr. Vicks was under life-long police protection because Islamic Jihadists threatened to kill him because participated in a protest for free speech that consisted of making drawings of Allah.
The auto accident is so bizarre it raises serious questions about whether murderous Islamic terrorists had accomplished another jihad.
Several other journalists and artists who participated in the free speech protest have been murdered or firebombed. Those who survived murder attempts live their lives in constant police protection. And the media is obscuring the name of the truck driver involved in the accident. Robert Spencer’s Jihad Watch has more details.
Who has the courage to reprint Vicks’ illustration? Not the media.
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