Macabre Christmas Display Makes Statement

[no_to_war_economy]

"a scene that includes a knife-wielding 5-foot-tall St. Nick and a tree full of decapitated Barbie dolls. Hidden partly behind a tree, the merry old elf grasps a disembodied doll's head with fake blood streaming from its eye sockets."



http://apnews.myway.com//article/20051214/D8EG40B00.html

[Burma Jones]

1. Back in College, in December 1981

Some of my Art Student house mates constructed a Santa Claus and a Cross. I, a theatre major, worked up a passable ritual. Another friend of ours from town obtained two dozen butchered Hog Heads. Being on the Illinois prarie, it stayed cold enough to preserve the hog heads. We also obtained a Golden Calf. Anyway, we crucified Santa in the front yard with 24 Hog Heads on spikes surrounding the martyred Claus, and all lovingly observed by the Golden Calf sitting on the porch roof.....

[mattclearing]

11. That must have scared the shit out of people.

Too bad about those poor hogs. They didn't deserve that, now did they?

[Burma Jones]

12. Well, folks just said - they're students, what the hell

As for the Hogs, well, they had already been dispatched and were now art as opposed to just meat.....:hippie:

[DistressedAmerican]

2. I Am Not Sure What Statement It Makes.

Whatever it is, I do not agree with it. If my kid saw that shit I would be furious!

That is some fucked up shit.

[uncle ray]

3. "that is some fucked up shit"

that's my opinion on the whole damn holiday.

[DistressedAmerican]

6. Mind If I Ask What The Hell Chritsmas Did to Make You So Bitter?

Seriously. What is up with that?

[Selatius]

10. I dunno about him, but I'm saddened by its corporatized nature

It's become so prepackaged, homogenized, and commoditized to the point that it is just disgusting and appalling. These corporations keep pushing the materialism over the humanity, and they keep pounding home the message that if you don't have this or that or whatever, you're not happy because happiness equals materialism, and I wonder if that is the reason why so many people drive themselves into debt to try and emulate the lifestyle of our more affluent Americans, and they wake up to find themselves even more under the control of the ones they are convinced to idolize by the propaganda, shackled by thousands of dollars worth of debt accumulating interest on top of interest for the idle rich.

[Horse with no Name]

4. This is wrong

:(
I'd be pissed if my kids saw it too.

[renate]

5. that is so incredibly unimaginative

Look at me, Mommy! Look how wacky and counter-culture I am, making Santa a mass murderer! It took me two whole seconds to come up with this idea! I'm making a statement AND getting lots of attention!!!!

:eyes:

I would be really mad if my kids saw that, but mostly I'm depressed about what passes for originality.

[Tsiyu]

7. Personally, I'd rather my child see that we still live in a culture that

values personal expression.

There are commercials I do not want my children to see.

There are movies I'd rather the youngest not watch.

I hate the way adults massacre characters intended for children (like dissing poor Barney for being a lover not a fighter - now THAT's juvenile) but I have no problem with the display in the OP because this whole holiday is just another excessive distraction in a seamless stream of distractions Americans grant themselves.

Santa is the "Gimme Man" and he's just showing us here exactly what our nation is giving to the world: the nice gift of maimed bodies. Woohoo!

Last year, a friend gave me a little tree with bloody, broken severed limbs on it. We were all living in poverty, having a hard time celebrating when our country was at war. (Yeah, I know, that's an easy thing to forget for most people...that we are at war...what a downer at Christmas!!!! *twinkle twinkle* *look at the sparkly things!*)

I displayed that tree proudly. Her small child helped her make it. My youngest viewed it somberly and understood.

Reality sucks. Art tends to point that out.

[no_to_war_economy]

8. d

[Cults4Bush]

9. College freshman? Fine arts major?

This is bad in way of art (yes yes subjective but most opinion is). Reliance upon shock value has limited effect in regards to an actual statement, if the "shock value" is cheaply done. This screams a negative but there is nothing well done about the piece. Leaving that negative as the only substance of emotional impact.

Making a statement even a brutal one out of usually positive icons is fine but do it well and do it like no one else would have. I think I saw something like this every year I hung around college, without actual deep and unique creative input this comes off as someone just trying to piss off someone else. That's not art it's just being vindictive.