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Video: Homeless Jesus and the Growing Fruit: Scandalous Statues People Are More Tolerant of Today
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Even the works of the most famous artists and sculptors, at times, come across a sharp rebuff from the public opinion, what can we say about the newcomers. It often happens that talented people have to "put in a drawer" their works until better times, when their work is understood or when "its time comes." In our article, we would like to talk about two such works that have stood the test of time.
Homeless Jesus / Matthew 25
The statue known as the Homeless Jesus appeared back in 2013. Its creator, Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz, depicted a homeless man wrapped in a blanket on a bench so that only his bare feet are visible, while cuts are visible on the ankles, as if from nails driven into them.
This sculpture was placed in front of different churches at different times - in Ireland, in the Dominican Republic, in Spain, in the USA and even in Rome. The reaction was different - and there was more than enough negative reaction. Someone called the police with complaints about such blasphemy, someone went to the churches next to which the statue was erected, and complained that “this homeless man” scares them. But the main complaints were about the fact that it was not appropriate to portray Jesus as a homeless person - this is completely “unacceptable for portraying the Son of God”. Many priests spoke very negatively about this statue, categorically calling "not to pervert the image of Jesus."
The sculptor himself called his work "Matthew 25", thus referring to the lines from the corresponding chapter of the Bible: "Truly I say to you, since you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you did it to Me."
However, over time, the churches realized that despite the provocativeness of the statue, it is an excellent means of attracting attention and can even be viewed from a positive side. So, in 2017, several churches signed a contract with the sculptor for a permanent exhibition of Homeless Jesus, including a church in Denver, USA and in a city on the other side of the ocean - Glasgow, Scotland.
Amazing journey
More recently, in the city of Doha, Qatar, a huge sculptural composition appeared, consisting of 14 huge (5 to 11 meters) bronze sculptures. This composition depicts the development of a fetus from fertilization of an egg to a fully formed newborn baby. The author of this work is the scandalous Damien Hirst, who is not the first time using this theme in his sculptures (remember at least his 20-meter statue of a pregnant woman or a series of realistic paintings depicting the birth of his wife).
Hirst began his work on this massive composition back in 2005, and first presented it to the public only in 2013. Hirst originally created The Amazing Journey for Qatar and the capital's medical center, but as soon as the sculpture was installed and opened to the public, a negative reaction followed immediately. In Qatar, a purely Muslim country where there is not a single statue depicting a nude body, such sculptures caused a real scandal.
Then, in 2013, the sculptures were removed, officially “so as not to harm them during the reconstruction of the medical center,” but it was clear that this decision was influenced by public opinion. And now, five years later, the opening took place in a much more peaceful atmosphere. “There is a verse in the Qur'an about the miracle of birth. There is nothing against our religion or culture in this sculpture,”says Sheikha Al Mayassa Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chair of the Qatar Museum Community.
However, the scandalousness of these works is rather relative. There are many sculptures in the world, which also caused a lot of controversy. We just wrote about some of them in our article. "10 nude sculptures that cause controversy in society."
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