unofficial blog for course ART007

Lehigh University
Art Architecture and Design
113 Research Drive
Building C
Bethlehem, PA 18015

Controversy, Emma

Controversial Photography

Andero Serrano’s piece “Piss Christ” is sure to spark a controversial conversation in any context.  The piece features an image of Jesus on the cross submerged in urine.  At face value this seems to be pretty offensive to religion, considering that urine is not held in the highest regard and to submerge a representation of a religion it in feels very disrespectful.  This is obviously the argument against it, that the piece is disrespectful to the Christianity as it seems as though the artist is “urinating on the son of God”.  However the other side of this argument is that it is a rather sincere representation of the religion in that Jesus and the passion of christ is frequently associated with bodily fluids, and that there are plenty of other works of art that feature Jesus and other grotesque bodily fluids, the article uses the example of Grunewald’s Christ in the Isenheim altarpiece that has jesus with horrible sores and puss on his body.  Of course this piece will always be interpreted by the viewer and they will make the decision of whether or not to be offended, this makes Piss Christ an incredibly impactful and controversial works of art.

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