"Sensation" on David Bowie's Website

ZDNet reports that David Bowie is now hosting the controversial art exhibition "Sensation" on his website. If you've been in a cave for the last week, this is the British exhibition that is annoying the hell out of NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani. He has said he will pull funding to the Brooklyn Museum, and even Sen. Bob Smith (R-NH) is making political hay in Washington.

Some may recall the NEA flap started in 1989 by a Mapplethorpe photo exhibit (for a recap, try the book Culture Wars ). The threat of censorship has loomed over publicly-funded galleries and artists ever since. The news behind the news is that the internet will now allow a curious country to see the artwork that our government is telling us is evil; ten years ago, all the newspapers could print were lurid descriptions by the would-be censors. Will this make a difference?

It will not make much difference

[Seth Finkelstein]

How many people, when confronted by the latest outrage from the supposed forces of blasphemy and decay, are going to take the time to search out a fairly obscure website and render an informed opinion?

- The Boston Lunatic

Obscenity for all

[Demona]

Here's a lovely little traveling exhibit called Ecce Homo [eccehomo.nu], which according to Wired [wired.com], manages to "provoke both the pope and the European parliament at the same time...The photos depict Christ at various stages in his life, death and resurrection...in the company of homosexuals." The exhibit will open in New York sometime next year; the artist has received death threats and now travels with bodyguards. Check it out and decide for yourself if it's art.