Blasphemy or art for art’s sake? Zealots up in arms!
No, that’s not a real gorilla hanging from a cross – it’s a waxworks created with the aid of a Madame Tussaud’s technician for artist Paul Fryer’s exhibit "The Privilege of Dominion" at the former Holy Trinity Church in Marylebone, London.
Fryer claims the ape was nailed to "highlight (the) plight of the Western Lowland Gorillas, and to challenge the Christian notion that animals do not have souls," according to a report.
Last year Fryer dumbfounded the Christian world with his "Jesus in an Electric Chair" coinciding with Easter.
"If they had had the chair in Christ’s time, people would be wearing little electric chairs now," Fryer said.
"I do go to church and regard myself as a Christian, though I’m probably a heretic," Fryer told the London Evening Standard.
"I just hope people understand the spirit of it is intended to create discourse and make people think rather than offend anybody."
The show’s curator, Joe La Placa, defended the controversial depiction of Savior as simian, saying the sculpture is supposed to inspire discussion why primates are vanishing from the veldt.
Art or blasphemy? YOU be the judge.
