Andres Serrano's Piss Christ - his 1987 photograph of a crucifix immersed in urine - was attacked last weekend in France by Catholic activists armed with blunt tools. The LA Times reports that:
"three people entered the Collection Lambert art museum in Avignon, France, over the weekend. One of them wielded a hammer at the photograph, breaking the protective glass. The photograph was apparently not damaged, though other works in the show were. Piss Christ was being displayed as part of a religion-themed group exhibition titled I Believe in Miracles.
Serrano told Libération: "I find it extremely sad, and unexpected. Frankly, I wasn't expecting something like this at all, especially in France, where I get a lot of support." Serrano also reiterated that he is a Christian artist and has no tolerance for blasphemy.
The Catholic bishop of Avignon, Monseigneur Jean-Pierre Cattenoz, has described Serrano's photograph as "odious" and has called for its removal.
Over the years, Piss Christ has generated a lot of heated rhetoric. The work was a central focus of the Culture Wars in the 1990s, in which politicians and arts supporters debated whether the National Endowment for the Arts should support works by Serrano, Robert Mapplethorpe and other transgressive artists."
Despite this, Piss Christ is an almost perfect image by which to reflect on the reality of the incarnation. The incarnation saw Christ choose to immerse himself in the shit and detritus of human life to the extent of being treated, in his death, as being of no worth and entirely surplus to requirements. I can think of no other image that brings the scandalous reality so graphically to mind and, if that cannot be understood by those who smashed the image last weekend, one wonders what they actually understand of their faith.
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The Call - Walls Came Down/Scene Beyond Dreams.
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