Eat This In Remembrance Of Me (...then brush your teeth!)

Do you remember the artist Cosmio Cavallaro? He's the guy that covered a motel room with melted cheese. Not an action that I personally understand or relate to, but that's fine. I can respect without understanding. Well, Mr. Cavallaro has presented the public with a life sized, anatomically accurate sculpture of Jesus, the human manifestation of the Christian deity, also referred to as "the Son of God" and "Jesus Christ," and recognized by Christians as the Messiah prophesied by the ancient Jewish seers. Follow any of the links in this blog to check out the sculpture.

Now, from an aesthetic point of view, I find the "My Sweet Lord" sculpture far more satisfying than cheese covered architecture. The form of the sculpture seems (from the pictures at least) to be quite elegant and is by no means disrespectful. For some reason, though, many are taking offense at the idea that it is made of chocolate.

What? How can people be offended by a representation of Jesus made from a substance that is loved, revered and consumed by so many of us! They say it is disrespectful. And I do not understand that.

So, we get into some art theory here. Mr. Cavallaro seems to have succeeded in getting many slow witted Americans to consider an issue that would have either bored them or zoomed right past them if addressed in a more theoretical way, and that is the impact and validity of conceptual art. An art form that depends on the idea as much as the execution or artifacts that remain after the art has taken place. In this case, it is not the artist's ability to create a likeness or to elicit an emotional response via shape, form, texture, color, but to pull that response from the idea of the materials used to create it.

So, to those who are offended, perhaps it is the idea that there is a depiction of their deity created out of a sweet and desirable treat that, in recent months, has been shown to have positive effects on human health in the form of antioxidants. Sheesh! Talk about hard to please!!!

What really confuses me, though, is the reactions of those interviewed about the sculpture. They were largely offended by the idea that it was made of chocolate, which I've commented on, but many felt it necessary to say to the interviewer that they wouldn't eat any of the chocolate.

The wouldn't eat the chocolate. Hmmm... Now, I know that from time to time, when looking at a painting by Renoir that I am tempted to go up and lick the surface because his reds look like cherry and strawberry candy and the greens and blues are most definitely spearmint and peppermint, but this is something completely different. These are people who worship a god that manifested itself as a human male, who was said to have lived as a human with all of the ups and downs, but maintained his divinity and, through some machination of logic determined that his own death would "atone for the sins of mankind."

Yikes.

What is more is that he, before he arranged his own arrest, for which, by the way, his associate, assistant and confidant was, until recently, blamed for betrayal and marked as a traitor rather than the faithful and strong servant that he was; this Jesus Christ, before he was taken away to be executed, he instituted a ritual, a sacrament, if you will, of symbolic cannibalism. He broke bread and told his followers that it was his body. He passed a cup of wine and told them that it was his blood. He told them to eat and drink in order to remember him. Some of the Christian sects out there actually believe in this thing called transubstantiation - this notion that after the bread and wine are blessed by the appropriate holy man, the bread actually turns into flesh and the wine actually turns into blood. And these Christians consume it. They eat their God! Except, of course, when their God is represented in chocolaty sweet goodness.

This is just insane.

So, I tip my hat to you, Cosimo Cavallaro! You've ruffled some feathers, sure, but you've focused some attention on our human foibles - and that is commendable.

....and then there is the giant Barack Obama Jesus with the neon halo.....


CNN Article
CNBC Article