It's art, says the naked woman who'll hug a dead pig on stage

[Herman Munster]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=401165&in_page_id=1770&in_a_source=

After pickled sheep, unmade beds and painting with elephant dung, some questioned where modern art could go next.

Kira O'Reilly will provide her own answer today by spending four hours naked, hugging a dead pig - at the taxpayer's expense.

The controversial Irish performance artist will invite one person at a time to watch her sit in a specially-constructed set and perform a 'crushing slow dance' with the carcass in her arms.

She claims the bizarre exhibition is an attempt to 'identify' with the pig, which she cuts with a knife during the show.

[Pacifist Patriot]

1. More power to her, but it's not to my taste.

[RebelOne]

2. I have one word for this: SICK!

[kenny blankenship]

3. Fine fine you say it's art-but is it a comment on the Bush Administration?

[MrCoffee]

9. Right you are, Ken.

[BOSSHOG]

4. There are many uses of my tax dollars that I object to

This is not one of them.

[winter999]

31. Not U.S. tax dollars!

This art is for UK taxpayers (so its ok).

[BurningDog]

39. Assuming the same thing happened with US taxpaper dollars...

why should I and the rest of the country that do object to this have to fund it instead of you finding www.deadpigsonnakedchicks.com and pulling out your credit card? If you say that you wouldn't waste your money on checking out the website or supporting it financially so other people can check it out, why is it ok to waste everybody's money, including yours, on this performance?

As long as people are starving and homeless, I don't want to see taxpayer money going to a woman to get naked and stab a pig. Once thats taken care of, bring on the naked girls with animals.

[BOSSHOG]

41. I'm offended at dumping

one billion dollars a month into Iraq for the sake of "conservative" politics. If its okay to use my money for that purpose then I'm just fine if my money is used to fund the arts. If its okay to build a bridge to nowhere because some goddammed republican wants to impress his constituents then we can fund the arts. If george bush can operate Air Force One at $60,000.00 per hour flying from Texas to DC to sign a piece of paper to keep a brain dead woman alive then I'm for funding the arts. Cut funding for the arts and there will still be people in this country starving and homeless. "Conservatives" don't care about the arts, they don't care about you, they don't care about me, they don't care about the homeless and starving; that offends me.

[MrCoffee]

5. You say tomato, I say naked woman hugging a dead pig.

Different strokes for different folks, i guess.

[charlie and algernon]

6. that's f-cked up

totally f-cked up, but whatever, that's the $hit we get with having a free society.

"I may disagree with what you say, but will fight to the death for your right to say it"

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

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[warrens]

8. Ho-kay

Enough is enough. This is one of those issues where the wingnuts have a point. Of course, if they were serious about ending funding for the arts, as they seem to be, they might be surprised to watch every orchestra and opera company in the country go out of business instantly.

But still, stabbing dead pigs is just off my chart.

[bleedingheart]

12. this is in Cornwall England...and it is UK taxes

[MUSTANG_2004]

13. Orchestra's go out of business? What's the downside?

Hmm. Think of all the poor husbands who will no longer be compelled to spend two hours listening to what appears to be the same song, over and over and over.

[maxsolomon]

19. HA! funny

orchestras go out of business because they cater to a dying breed: music students & old people who can eat a blue plate special & make it to a 7:30 concert.

the symphony should start at 9. and be cheaper. and program INTERESTING CONTEMPORARY WORKS.

[SmokingJacket]

28. Exactly.

There are plenty of great new works (and under-played older ones) written for orchestra. Kronos Quartet is an excellent example of a classically trained group who can -- and do -- play ANYTHING.

If more classical musicians followed their example, a lot more people would go out and listen to them.

I happen to love classical music, but let's face it: much of it isn't really all that good, and much of what IS good is played to death.

It's high time for those who play classical instruments to break out.

[bleedingheart]

10. It is UK tax dollars...not US tax dollars...

and to be honest that is a far better than building a bomb ...

granted...isn't my style of art...but hey...everyone's tastes are different..

[MoseyWalker]

11. Rove's still alive

this performance artist is a FAKE!

[kurth]

14. They look at her or the pig?

Pork chops and bacon for everyone after the show.

[Ghost in the Machine]

15. When did Rove die, and why does this woman want to hug him??

[Monk06]

16. When are British artists going to stop stealing Joseph Beuys' ideas?

[maxsolomon]

17. what dissapointing, predictable reactions

harumphing know-nothings.

this is a real artist. read her bio on the link i posted above. google her.

if you can't appreciate it, fine, but then maybe you should think about what that says about your open mind. art is not supposed to just be a fluffy bunny for you to coo over.

[cali]

22. Frankly, I think her performance

sounds utterly predictable and boring. I do like some performance art. I saw Steve Paxton do an incredible dance to the Goldberg Variations some years ago, blindfolded. It was thrilling. As described, this sounds less so.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

23. Have you seen the performance?

No? Well then.

[Lochloosa]

24. I agree. I have always wondered what reaction this painting got

when it was first hung....

[htuttle]

30. I think that painting is OF the reaction it got when it was first hung

:)

[mogster]

50. Woohoo, that's stolen now

Still not recovered.

[paulk]

18. what some people will do for attention....

[maxsolomon]

20. yes, that's the only reason she's doing this. attention.

:eyes:

isn't that the only reason any artist does anything? or is it just money?

for some reason, all these attention whores, from picasso to yoyo ma to meryl streep, think that they do it because they love their work.

[paulk]

26. I don't consider rolling around naked with a dead pig "art"

and if I did, I would hardly put it at the level of the artists you mention....


---------------------------------

[yurbud]

21. the art that really says something powerful is ignored, like Falling Woman

the 9/11 Memorial statue some guy did.

It perfectly caught that horror we felt seeing people jump from the World Trade Center without being graphic or gross, but it was so disturbing, it had to be removed from public display.

[midnight]

27. Why is that?

People do not want to think? They want to be feed a diet of fast food art?

[marions ghost]

46. Not only ignored

some people will not even LOOK. They refuse to see. Controversial art is always removed in America these days. Because we're so afraid. But in the end it's only art. It only speaks for its maker. It won't bite.

Everyday I see something that offends me. I have seen things that are much worse than the sight of a woman and a dead pig. I have seen elections stolen, peoples lives ruined by unscrupulous corporations,
fragile environments paved over, hideous commercial developments, people obsessed by greed and lust for power, a government in shambles, an obscene war for profit.

There are much worse things than a woman and a dead pig, whatever you may think of it.

[bluerum]

25. I would much rather pay her to do this than pay to kill people.

[porphyrian]

29. I think synchronized swimming is a stupid waste of time...

...but that doesn't mean it isn't art, or that it doesn't deserve funding. Art has two major reasons to exist. The first is simply because artists must create art. It's what they do. The media they choose is their choice, not anyone else's. The second reason is for an audience, to experience it and have some sort of reaction. Some art is more geared towards the first, and some is more geared towards the second. In this latter case, it's success can be guaged by the amount of reaction a work gets. I'm thinking dead pig art falls into this latter category. The most effective way to protest it is to ignore it, as it requires an audience for success. Complaining about it merely rockets the artist to fame. Do you think Marilyn Manson would've cut a second album if so many parents and religious groups hadn't have had a baby over the band?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

32. I think the audience size is an issue, even if the performance isn't.

Whether or not a proportion of state art funding ought to be used to finance naked women dancing with pigs, if it is then a reasonable number of people ought to be allowed to watch.

The reason a state should fund the arts is primarily so that people can experience art, not so that they can be artists. If only one person at a time is being allowed to watch then, unless the turnover is very fast indeed, it's not something the state should spend much money on.

[sandnsea]

33. PETA is outraged

"This seems to be a desperate cry for help that merits visits from mental health counsellors, not voyeurs."

Hmmm.

[Dorian Gray]

36. I don't always agree with PETA,

but I do in this instance. I like all sorts of art, but watching a woman slow dance with a dead pig, all the while stabbing at it with a knife? It does not appeal to me, nor do I believe that it has an important message. I think it shows a weird relationship to death, and a sort of disrespect for the life of the pig.

[Irreverend IX]

34. Is it just me...

Or is a lot of today's modern art taking inspiration from frat boy-style initiation pranks? "Huh, dude, let's make him dance naked with a dead pig!" I don't see what's so avant-garde about concepts like this; you could chat with some drunken members of Phi Alpha Zeta who post YouTube videos of their friends puking off a balcony and get ideas for a dozen more pieces of performance art like this. I don't oppose this activity any less than I oppose the broadcast of World's Scariest Firecracker Accidents III, but I don't see why tax dollars are needed to support it. But it's UK tax money and not mine, so it's no skin off my nose.

[lectrobyte]

35. Daryn Kagen is naked? Rush Limbaugh is dead? I missed that in the news

what with the JonBenet sequel this week.

[marions ghost]

47. ...!?!

:rofl:

[Name removed]

37. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Skinner]

38. Upon review, we have decided to unlock this thread.

This is a legitimate public policy issue that should be open for discussion on DU.

[rug]

40. Thank God she wasn't with a chicken.

[Hugin]

42. Here, I thought Tucker Carlson had found a dance partner...

The headlines on these threads can be confusing.

[Jamastiene]

43. Art is art.

I guess the Jessie Helms' of the world world will say nothing about this one. I mean it IS weird as hell, but it is art. They'd complain if it was nekked men.

[Hugin]

44. They'd complain if it were a man and a woman fully clothed dancing...

or in the same room.

Fundies are all the same.

[Armstead]

45. I'll defend it as art -- But she is a sicko. Here's anotehr of her "works"

This is from a website diuscussaing the work, and another of her pieces.

http://www.britishcouncil.org/arts-performance-in-profile-2006-kira-oreilly.htm

View (nearer to the time) Intimate and personal one-on-one negotiations are made by email correspondence and phone conversations between artist and audience to negotiate the making or not making of a cut on the artist’s body. The audience then meet with the artist’s shrouded and impersonalised body in small groups to make or not make their mark.

[marions ghost]

48. gotta allow for this body art stuff

yes it's a gross-out. How about the guy who liked to get hung up by his skin? Or the man who's slowly turning himself into a leopard with successive tattoos and surgery? As long as it's self-inflicted and not done to people who don't want it, you can't argue with it.

It's on the edge of sanity I guess...approaching freak shows. Gotta admit it stretches your brain a bit. And so is a strange form of art. I sure don't seek it out, but there's an audience for it.

[mogster]

49. LOL! We had this Chinese guy a couple of years ago

His art was to be buried in a standing position up to the neck, outside one of the art galleries, and lick the shoes of the people passing by.
Ah, well.

I remember the people forming the group Yello, Dieter Meyer and Boris Blank. They met at a performance art exhibiton where Meier was exhibited; sitting in a bathtub of rotting meat, I think it was for twenty days or so.
Or so the story said.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_art

[JitterbugPerfume]

51. it is called

freedom of expression .

Any woman who has ever married an unfeeling , intellectually dead "pig" can interpret that