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 Have
you ever noticed how chocolate is a seasonal treat? M&Ms are even
offered in seasonally appropriate colors. At Christmas time there are the
chocolate coins we all get in our stockings. Then there's Valentine's Day
with heart-shaped boxes of fancy chocolates. And then stores go straight
into the chocolate bunnies of Easter.
A few years ago some artistic type displayed a lovely portrait of the Blessed
Virgin, Mary, Mother of our Lord and employed the media of elephant dung.
Another gallery displayed a crucifix in a vat of human urine.
At least Cosimo Cavallaro used 200 pounds of milk chocolate to sculpt his
life-size statue of Jesus. Of course, he used 200 pounds of milk chocolate
to sculpt a life-sized naked and apparently anatomically correct Jesus.
Most crucifixes discreetly cover Jesus's privates with an carefully draped
loincloth, but it's not likely that the Romans were so discreet to those being
crucified. Are we, who celebrate the Circumcision of our Lord every
January 1, actually offended by a Jesus with his loins ungirded?
Why chocolate? Apparently the artist is a bit avant garde, using food as
media in a number of his works, including covering a house
in Wyoming in 5,000 pounds of pepperjack, Twiggy (the model) in processed
canned cheese,
a bed in slices of ham, and a number of other similar "edible"
projects.
He's clearly a creative kind of guy. Considering his other pieces, a
chocolate corpus isn't that bad.
The chocolate Jesus was originally completed in 2005 and had the name, "i
did it daddy" according to Cavallaro's online gallery (search and view at
your own discretion - be prepared for some offensive language and images).
When it was being prepared for a 2-hour per day Holy Week showing in the front
window of a New York City gallery, it had been given the name, "My Sweet
Lord".
One journalist, Yahoo's David Kao, has an interesting
take on the whole situation. He writes, "If art is free to
express itself, however, so to the public is free to declare judgment. And so
with this piece of "art" I can freely say that I think it is absurd...
but also that in some ways it is actually the perfect piece of art for holy
week. Why? Because it reminds all of those who follow Jesus of how he was mocked
and ridiculed, how he was scorned and beaten, how he was humiliated... and all
because of his love for us. Those are good things for his followers to remember."
So what, exactly, is offensive, about this rendition? Is chocolate an
inherently inappropriate media for sculpture? Christians rallied to have
the gallery pull the display, successfully. But it is
"scandalous" and "sickening"? Why is this particular
chocolate Jesus more offensive than the ones for sale this
chocolate Jesus (and Mary) or this
chocolate Jesus?
Is it that an artist is depicting Jesus in non-traditional media? Is it
that Jesus is depicted at ALL? Is it chocolate? Would it be better
if the artist used bread and wine? Is there something wrong with my
sensibilities that I don't get what the hoopla is about?
Edited on: March 31st, 2007 1:56 pm
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