Buddhists finally offended

buddha.jpg
For the first time in MWW’s nearly-three years of blogging religiously-inspired censorship, the Buddhists have made the news.

St Giles Street Gallery in Norwich was visited by the police following complaints about a statue of the Buddha with two polished eggs and a golden banana in his lap. They threatened to seize and destroy the statue until a compromise was reached and it was turned to face away from the window.

Members of the Norwich Buddhist Centre were among several complainants. Spokesman Tom Llewellyn said:

It is crass and inappropriate and I don’t think it has much value or imagination.

Rise above it, Tom!

Colin Self, the sculptor, defended the work saying it was designed to show how easy it was to cause offence.

The gallery owner, David Koppel, is defiant:

Morally I am totally convinced that this work should be allowed to be seen and it is my intention to continue to display it as prominently as possible.

I will be back in Norfolk next week and I will be taking legal advice. I have no qualms about being arrested and, if necessary, I will allow them to take me away as a protest in favour of artistic freedom.

Good on you, David.


9 Responses to “Buddhists finally offended”

  1. sean says:

    That’s a shame. The buddhists were doing so well.

  2. Andy Armitage says:

    At least they don’t go marching around threatening to decapitate people. I suspect this is the last we’ll hear of it. (Love the caption!)

  3. Andy Gilmour says:

    That statue can’t be of the buddha, it’s way too thin! 🙂

    [i know, iknow, it’ll be the young buddha starving himself into hallucinations under the tree… ;-)) ]

    So who’s going to get censoriously upset next? The Jains?

  4. marc says:

    Doubt it Andy, they’d be to frightened of the consquences. Perhaps if a Jain protests too much, and his God doesn’t take his side, he gets struck down by lightning. Who knows? Who give a rats arse?

  5. NoJags Neil says:

    Buddhists are a bit of a soft target though, aren’t they? This reminds me of the standup guy (can’t remember his name) who was trying to decide whether to take the piss out of Muslims or Gays. He concluded, “Well, what’s the worst thing the Gays are going to do? Come around and criticize my soft furnishings?”

  6. Andrew Please says:

    The attention seeking artist is showing that it is possible to offend by purposefully being offensive, so he picks on Budhists to prove his point. Bravo. I’ll stand up for his moral right to do that but I can’t imagine he’d be the type of person I would buy a pint. The budhists basically told him ‘You’re annoying’, and I’m with them on that. They’re allowed to tell him that.
    A cleverer piece of art for the people of Norfolk to enjoy would maybe show how easy it is to offend certain religous groups without meaning to.

  7. simon says:

    The thing is, it IS crass and it DOES show no imagination. But I suppose we do have to defend some utter shite in the name of free speech. It’s a shame the buddhists have felt the need to get the police involved, because I would be entirely on their side if they felt the need to follow David Koppel around 24/7 pointing out just how annoying he is.

    Right, I’m off to meditate now. 😉

  8. nontheist says:

    This is Buddha with a Hard On? 🙂 Hey thats natural but a 90 degree hard on can only be art !!