The Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow with a local community church has opened a new exhibition that originally aimed to “reclaim the Bible as a sacred text”.
.
In a somewhat unorthodox way of achieving this end they have left a Bible open at the exhibition inviting people to write whatever they want in it.
“If you feel you have been excluded from the Bible, please write your way back into it,” asks the gallery.
Many have partaken in this by writing pearls of theological wisdom such as “F*** the Bible” and “Facist God”. You can read the story here.
My first question is if God is a Fascist why did he just not make us all look Swedish?
Another more serious one is why is it considered artistically legitimate by some to vandalise the Bilble and not another religious text, say the Koran.
The Catholic Church has made this point in its response to the exhibition, which also shows a woman tearing up the Bible and stuffing it down her undies.
So why doesn’t more art question, critique or parody Islam?
The answer being that criticising or parodying Islam in the name of art is a pretty fraught pastime - just ask Salman Rushdie, the Danish cartoonists or Theo van Gogh (for those of you who don’t know he was shot and had his throat cut on the way to work after making a short-film showing verses of the Koran projected onto naked women).
This is not an invitation to go out and start tearing pages from anyone’s holy text - in fact the work of van Gogh suffered from the same cheap attention seeking techniques as the Glasgow stunt does, and ultimately it doesn’t make for very good art.
But given the role and shape of Islam in the world at present, maybe it should be just as much a target of artistic critique in the west as Christianity often finds itself?
Another point to be made here is that exhibitions like this cater to a rather middle-class undergraduate sense of what it is to be shocked (“let’s like rip-up the Bible guys”), and if churches choose to handle these incidents with more maturity and tolerance themselves in can serve both as the best advert for their faith and best rebuttal to their critics.
But a mistake that the Catholic Church and other churches tend to make in these situations is to call for bans and pickets of galleries, movie theatres etc.
In turn these serve as self-fulfilling prophesies for artists staging the exhibition just itching to be victimised for something.
But if these guys are indeed at “the cutting edge of contemporary art”, as they told The Times, it might be worth having a look around the world today and realising that there are tougher holy cows than the Bible walking around.
Facebook Recommendations
Read all about it
Punch live
Up to the minute Twitter chatter
@TheStalwart an analyst in Sydney said it was a "sad day" http://t.co/vh4Yu4OgDD. I think he was just exhausted and gave up analyzing
RT @NASA: Amazing views from the International Space Station of Pavlof Volcano erupting in Alaska. http://t.co/vqBkkiOful
US Google Doodle features a girl's touching depiction of her father's return from Iraq http://t.co/4LiRFOntTY
Recent posts
The latest and greatest
The Punch is moving house
Good morning Punchers. After four years of excellent fun and great conversation, this is the final post…
Will Pope Francis have the vision to tackle this?
I have had some close calls, one that involved what looked to me like an AK47 pointed my way, followed…
Advocating risk management is not “victim blaming”
In a world in which there are still people who subscribe to the vile notion that certain victims of sexual…
Nosebleed Section
choice ringside rantings
From: Hasbro, go straight to gaol, do not pass go
Tim says:
They should update other things in the game too. Instead of a get out of jail free card, they should have a Dodgy Lawyer card that not only gets you out of jail straight away but also gives you a fat payout in compensation for daring to arrest you in the first place. Instead of getting a hotel when you… [read more]From: A guide to summer festivals especially if you wouldn’t go
Kel says:
If you want a festival for older people or for families alike, get amongst the respectable punters at Bluesfest. A truly amazing festival experience to be had of ALL AGES. And all the young "festivalgoers" usually write themselves off on the first night, only to never hear from them again the rest of… [read more]Gentle jabs to the ribs
Superman needs saving
Can somebody please save Superman? He seems to be going through a bit of a crisis. Eighteen months ago,… Read more
Most commented