Personal Jesus (coat hangers)
August 16th, 2006
We received this rather, um, unique contribution from designer/artist Oscar Perez. It’s hard to deny the strange beauty of these resin crucified hands, but they raise the question of when art goes from being deliberately provocative to gratutiously shocking. Personally, from the standpoint of a contemporary commodification of religion and spirituality, I find these “coat hangers” both beautiful and disturbing–they remind me in some ways of Andres Serrano’s controversial Piss Christ,
a stunning photograph of a cruficied Christ in a jar of the artist’s urine.
But where that photograph achieves a quality both elegiac yet transcendent, the modernist beauty of these hands seems almost sarcastic. The artist’s other works suggest he is broadly interested in artwork that functions as both commodity and pointed reference to tragedy and violence. Still, somehow the ironic juxtapositions of medium and content that Perez employs (a needlepoint of 9/11, a bowl emblazoned with a starving African child, a molotov cocktail recontextualized as a luxury good, etc.) seem to me a bit heavy-handed. What do our readers think?
Popularity: 75% [?]
August 31st, 2006 at 3:59 pm
I hate to sound squeemish but I don’t go to Slasher films or
have an interest in plating Shoot & Rape Video games like Grand Theft Auto.. I do appreciate the seriel nature of these as a set, the color and material.. I just don’t want to look at a sickening thing no matter how “cool” someone thinks it is..Someone else has the coat rack mad of a dead bird..same family of stuff to me.. sorry. and it isn’t the Jesus factor
either, it is the nail thru the hand..
September 3rd, 2006 at 5:55 pm
I certainly wouldn’t want them in my own home… for a variety of reasons. But making them in Jolly-Rancher colors kind of offsets the gross factor. I guess mainly they wouldn’t really go with my decor.
January 10th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
I thought “oh how funny” until I actually saw these horrid things. Gross and mean.
September 13th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
I find this piece to be compelling and beautiful. I want one for every room in my home. Its a great homegood.
November 16th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
How much is the set of hands?
December 18th, 2007 at 12:46 am
where do I get one?
December 24th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
I think this is really disgusting to shame our Lord in this manner. So you wanna make blood money and profit for someone to throw their coat over His nail scarred hands. Disgusting!!!!!
January 12th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
this is offensive and ridiculous. the cruxifiction of Christ was not something one can make freaking COAT HANGERS from. wtf???
February 2nd, 2008 at 10:12 am
So often artistic images and sculpture use mythology as inspiration, and in their success as art objects invoke passionate response. It’s not surprising that these interesting and compelling pieces raise the ire of the superstitious Christvoodoo ignorant, while the educated find them appealing and humorous.
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:22 pm
“I have given wisdom to the lowly, to confound the wise.”
Dear Wise Craig, would love to see your face when you meet Jesus and explain to HIM your blasphemic choice in art. God have Mercy on all your souls. My husband has a PHD, and Loves the Lord…where’s your degree?
June 20th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
this is really freakishly unecessary. there are plenty of beautiful coathangers to choose from, the purpose of the crucifixion being displayed as statues and on rosaries is to remind us of his sacrifice to save us. if a coat is covering this symbol no one will see it!
August 24th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Sacrelicious!