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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Iraqi Art exhibition takes liberties with Lady Liberty |
| 2004-06-08 |
| excerpted from IWPR daily summary of Iraqi Press. (Asharq al-Awsat) - Tahir Whayib, a sculptor participating in an exhibition held in Baghdad to condemn the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, said "I wanted to explain that behind the face of freedom presented by the US we find nothing but agony and fetters". The idea of holding the exhibition was that of Qasim Sabti, Director of Hiwar Gallery. Sabti says, "The Americans behaved disgustingly and unbelievably". Whayib’s sculpture looks like the famous Statue of Liberty in America except that its hands and feet are tied, while its head is covered by the famous torch of freedom. (London-based Asharq al-Awsat, a pro-Saudi independent paper, is issued daily.) This demonstrates another planning failure with respect to the rebuilding effort. It is unconscionable that the Endowment of the Arts was given no role in the reconstruction. Whayib has demonstrated a fundamental misunderstanding about the requirements of "protest art." He has completely failed to use any bodily fluids or excrement in his art piece. Sure, maybe he wiped a haphazard bugger somewhere or included ear wax, but we are talking about the difference between giving feces, semen, mucus, blood and/or urine as a "central role in art as apposed to just an "important" role. |
| Posted by:Super Hose |