Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Another Jesus sculpture


Although it's not chocolate, a sculpture by a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago is also causing controversy this week. The piece, called "Blessing," depicts Barack Obama as a messianic figure, with Jesus-like robes and a neon blue halo.

"All of this is a response to what I've been witnessing and hearing, this idea that Barack is sort of a potential savior that might come and absolve the country of all its sins," the artist David Cordero, 24, told the Chicago Tribune. "In a lot of ways it's about caution in assigning all these inflated expectations on one individual, and expecting them to change something that many hands have shaped."

The school has received many angry phone calls about the piece and the Obama campaign is distancing itself from it. The Archdiocese of Chicago could not comment because it has not seen the work yet. No word from Donahue and the Catholic League...yet.