Skip to content
News
Link copied to clipboard

Abu Ghraib Art Defaced at Fleisher

Daniel Heyman's two woodblock pieces depicting a hooded prisoner at the Iraq prison  have been defaced, he tells Roberta Fallon and Libby Rosof of Artblog, from whom we borrow this image.

Either last night or this morning (someone) scrawled "At least I was not beheaded" on one work, and drew a picture of facial features on another, he told the Philadelphia bloggers.

Warren Angle, director of the Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial in South Philadelphia, removed the art works, but Heyman said that they be put back up.

At least it tells me that the work is getting a message across! Heyman wrote.

Reached by phone this afternoon, Angle told Blinq that he suspected the vandal(s) hit Wednesday. He was for not leaving the defaced pieces up, he said, because "it was my judgment that it would encourage other people to do it."

William Young
Posted 05/19/2005 05:01:09 PM
He should have left them up defaced because it would have made people think. It would've made them wonder what the grafitti meant...

...and ask why the US media thinks Abu Ghraib fiasco is super important but the murder of civilians is merely an opportunity for the media to point at the US government and write, "See, we told you so."

Ask yourself which is worse: putting a hood on a common Iraqi criminal and taking a snapshot, or cutting the head off a person who has committed no crime?
phillymark
Posted 05/19/2005 08:07:25 PM
perhaps they could juxtapose the pictures of the beheading of Nick Berg and Paul Johnson...just to compare and contrast...this so called art...and maybe through in some pictures of the mass graves...or saddams rape rooms!
Paul Kelly
Posted 05/19/2005 09:13:53 PM
Sorry Dan, You wanted to elicit a reaction. So don't complain because you got one.

john
Posted 05/19/2005 10:43:05 PM
While I don't agree with people defacing someones so-called art,I understand the frustration. Unfortunately there are more opportunities for the the voices of dissent to express themselves then there are for average mainstream individuals to express theirs. Almost every segment of our culture and media is controlled by people who are totally out of touch with the average American.
SC
Posted 05/22/2005 01:17:35 AM
if you put a crucifix in urine..you get an nea grant..let these artists live in cuba or north korea for 2 weeks...give them a taste of the "progressive" government they wish was in office here..
Liberal
Posted 05/23/2005 09:37:13 AM
So , what I understand from the commenters here is that as long as we are in some way better than some terrorists, everything is OK? We should strive for much better than that.

It is possible (I am NOT speaking in defense of killers) that they could use the exact same logic to tell their victims, "Cheer up, it's not as if your country has been occupied!" 
linndc
Posted 05/23/2005 04:51:16 PM
Why does it have to be a better/worse scenario?  Why this comparison between terrorists beheading people and American soldiers torturing prisoners?

Yes, of course it's a horribly heinous crime to kidnap, terrorize, and behead people.  Yes, there should be massive outrage over it, and yes, the perpetrators should be relentlessly pursued and held accountable for their crimes.

Now, what does that have to do with the Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib and the American soldiers torturing them?

Which beheaded victim will be restored by our soldiers acting in this manner?  Which problem will be solved?  Which beheading lunatic will be cured of their murderous tendencies after seeing Iraqis (who were NOT the ones beheading people) tortured? 

More importantly, what is the difference between American soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners and Saddam Hussein's soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners?  At what point have we shown the world we are a better nation, a better people, and a more moral government by doing this? 

Perhaps we should make that our new PR campaign.  "In AMERICAN prisons, you'll be tortured, but at least you won't be beheaded!"

Yay for our side.

Let's try to remember something....we allegedly went to Iraq to help make life better.  We're bringing democracy.  Lifting people out from under the tyrant's thumb.  That does not mean that everyone gets to work out their frustrations with the American judicial system of fair trial and just punishment by ignoring it in Iraq.
Citizen Mom
Posted 05/23/2005 06:11:56 PM
Freedom of expression cuts both ways. No, I don't think it's right to deface art, but people were pissed when the dude made art out of elephant dung in the shape of the Virgin Mary, too. 
I'm going to say that the graffito actually made the piece *more* artistic. It says more now.