Saddam Shark

In Mark in Mexico's neverending quest to bring to you all the news in pictures not fit to print anywhere else, here is the banned-in-Belgium "artwork" called "Saddam Shark". Together with the 12 Muhammed Cartoons, also known as the Danish Cartoons, along with the 3 faked cartoons, also known as the Danish Imam's Clumsily Forged I Could Have Done Better With A Magic Marker Cartoons, I have now posted more images in one week than in the past year.

The above image is an artwork by Czech Republic artist David Cerny, originally set for showing at the Beaufort 2006 art festival in the Belgian seaside town of Middelkerke, before the sculpture was banned by the mayor. Quoth hizzoner, Michel Landuyt,

In my view, it was too shocking.

They wanted to put this piece in a location where many children come, so that couldn't be allowed.

When you go to a museum and are prepared to see those things and there is an explanation, perhaps there is no problem. But when you come somewhere where you don't expect that, it can be a problem.

You can get another look at it by visiting Cerny's homepage. I give you two links to it because you really need to go to Cerny's opening page, first. Hmmm, veddy intelesting. Mr. Cerny probably has some commentary about his sculpture, including a possible explanation as to why we should consider it "art" in tehe first place, but his site is in the Czech language and the only Czechs I can understand are Wheat Czechs, Rice Czechs and Corn Czechs.

Mr. Cerny gained fame in 1991 when he painted a Soviet tank on display in Prague, pink, indicating, I think, that the USSR's hold over the Czechs was, finally, kaput. I'm not sure what message Mr. Cerny is trying to convey with his "Saddam Shark" scupture, but he may just be lampooning another artist. In 1991, art collecter Charles Saatchi commissioned sculpter Damien Hirst to do a piece called "Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living". Hirst's finished product, for which Saachi paid about $90,000, was a shark floating in a tank of formaldahyde. That shark artwork won the 1991 Turner Prize for Art in Great Britain, demonstrating that the British have no better taste in artwork than they do in food (see haggis).

Note to Sullivan, Digby, Kos, Black et al; This is NOT a just-released photo from Abu Ghraib. Those are being held by Mary Mapes and Dan Rather for release 72 hours prior to the 2006 mid-terms.

TAGS: Saddam Shark, David Cerny, Belgium, Muhammed Cartoons, Danish Cartoons