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: 65% [?]
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!
October 20th, 2008 at 6:31 am
I love Jesus, but this is just a material item. People get way too worked up over stuff like this! Take a deep breath and ask yourself if you’re being Christian by getting all mad and haughty.
October 27th, 2008 at 5:39 am
Word teh joob…think about it…if the art brings the Message, and reaches people it is good! If the money made with it is given to poor and needy, even better! People tend to think in a box way too often….good to see a believer who thaught outside of it!
November 3rd, 2008 at 8:23 am
Jesus is a commodity, just buy it instead of indulgences.
November 5th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
I am completely compelled by this conversation. Yet what I do not get is what the artist is trying to convey. Was he trying to strike up a conversation about Christ? Or was he seriously poking fun at an innocent death of our Savior? Did anyone research such a question? There are plenty of art pieces I do that I use for ministry reasons, of course never like this, mainly because I do not see Jesus as being a “candy like” fake. In fact he is a gentle creature of God sent from the Heavens to give a chance to our final judgment. Oddly enough, I found this picture looking for a photo of Jesus for my desktop, and came across these! weird. I personally do not like them, but that is because I (once again) do not see Jesus in them by the choice of color or use. In fact, I think I would appreciate them more if there were only two (a left and a right)and white while the nail remains black. I choose those colors because in Revelation of the Bible it says that God TELLS us to choose one way or the other. He would rather us choose hot or cold NO luke-warm. White being a color of innocence and purity would definitely be Jesus, and black portraying sin and pain (nail). As for the use, why must we demand so much out of Jesus? Yes we pray to him, and yes he is willfully answering those prayers, but I begin to wonder if the artist was using the “coathanger” idea as a way of showing that we as humans demand Jesus do something for US, instead of the opposite. Didn’t he do enough by dying on the cross? And yet I think about it more, and although I am just 17 and have a lifetime of knowledge to grasp under my wing, I do know this… Jesus WOULD do anything for us, even humbly holding our coat. While never thinking twice.
July 22nd, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Kathy – “My husband has a PHD, and Loves the Lord…where’s your degree?”
A degree makes you a better Christian? Jesus didn’t have one.
April 21st, 2010 at 6:35 pm
Better than 3 wolves howling at the moon shirt!!!!
April 21st, 2010 at 6:35 pm
Better than 3 wolves howling at the moon!!!
April 21st, 2010 at 6:36 pm
even better! I love the gay rainbow colours!!!