|
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK - This story goes back to January 2001. I was invited to come to a very unique art show at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. This was reported as the big banned art show from the U.K. The web was still pretty shoddy when it came to search engines back then, so I will just tell you this story from memory.
The word came from the hip kids at my art studio job that this was the show to see. Rumor had it that the news media was calling it controversial and filthy. Protest groups were showing up outside of the museum and they had flung horse manure at the art building. I have since looked this up on the web and was unable to verify it but it makes for a good story.
What was it that enraged so many people? The show glorified the profane, and it was supposed to have art that reached the limits on good taste. There was a painting of the Holy Mother of Mary painting wearing heaps of elephant dung. This outraged the Catholic community and Mayor Giuliani.
The show was narrated by David Bowie via portable pre-recorded MP3 players with headphones. Another display showed animals dissected into long segments dipped in formaldehyde and encased in glass. You could walk around a dissected animal and see its innards which were both intriguing as it was perverse.
THE HORRIFIC MOORS MURDERS ON CANVAS
The one-piece that was the most offensive of all may have been the painting of serial killer Myra Hindley. She and her partner, Ian Brady, went on an insane odyssey where they murdered small children in Manchester, England in 1963. They would kidnap them on the street and scout for them in traveling carnivals. They tortured and murdered them and buried them in the Moors which were expansive grasslands.
The fields were vast and nondescript in appearance. After Brady and Hindley were apprehended they would not cooperate with authorities to find the bodies. One of the children's remains, John Kilbride, was never recovered. The Moors Murderers, as they were known, were not in the least bit remorseful over their heinous acts. They even photographed their victims as they begged for life and in some cases recorded their pleas.
The gravity of their crimes ensured their life in prison. The painting entitled "Myra" by Marcus Harvey showed a large realistic portrait of Hindley painted in black and white paint. Upon closer inspection, the realistic picture was composed of tiny children's handprints.
The Britart Sensation art show didn't kick up any fuss when it traveled to Berlin, Germany. There is a city that has seen it all. Nothing is shocking. In America, the story of the Moors Murders still tends to shock even the hard-hearted criminologists. England has never forgotten the horror of that period from 1963 to 1965. Manchester, England lost 5 children to Ian Brady and Myra Hindley from ages 10 to 17. Four of the children were sexually assaulted and violently murdered. Edward Evans, age 17, was hacked to death with a hatchet. Neither Brady or Hindley showed any concern for their acts of heinous depravity. The only emotion shown came from Myra Hindley when she learned her dog Puppet had died while she was incarcerated. Hindley broke into hysterics and tears.
The Moors Murders In Pop Culture
The sensational crimes of the Moors Murders were written about in books most notably "The Moors Murders" by Jonathan Goodman. The murders are a theme in the British rock band The Smiths first album. The song "Suffer Little Children" is about the hideous sins that these two murderers committed. The Smith's lead singer, Morrissey, was the same age as the children who were abducted and killed. Some of them lived right around the corner from his house. This left a deep impression and bothered him growing up. The Moors are also up on the hill overlooking the town of Manchester. This is a heavy theme to carry around from an artistic standpoint.
I stood there and looked at the piece and could see little handprints of children overlapping in black and white paint. It was like a perverted impressionist painting. It was almost as if these tiny hands were reaching out from the dead and pointing out their killer. The commentary on this piece from David Bowie was very short. After speaking roughly a few sentences about the sensational crimes, minus the detail, the audio stopped short. This left the viewer to take it in and add in his thoughts or simply shuffle off to the next offensive piece of art.
Judging from the commentary available on the web it is unclear if anyone had drawn those conclusions. The Britart show was very disturbing at times. While some of the art seem to be made for shock value only, some pieces screamed out to viewer with unspeakable perversion.
BANNED ART !!
|
