Thursday, February 25, 2010

Arte Para la Gente: The mind of Andres Serrano

Note: The following post is a near copy of a post originally published in September 2008.

Depending on whom you ask, Andres Serrano is either a courageous contemporary artist or an immoral perverted heathen. What is clear is that he is not afraid to ruffle some feathers through his artwork and photographs of risqué and taboo subjects.


A 2008 exhibition was absolute crap and we mean it in the most literal way possible:
Now, the genial renegade is back, fulfilling his desire to do, in his words, "something that would provoke even me"—namely, shooting 66 different piles of doo-doo dumped by as many animals, blown up to eight feet high and ready to hang on the walls of the Yvon Lambert Gallery (in New York City) beginning September 4…



"I always said I wouldn't work with children and sex, and I wouldn't work with shit, so when I came up with this idea [which dawned on him, to the best of his recollection, during the nude wrestling scene in Borat], I had to put myself in a special place. I had to prepare myself mentally—it was a scientific and aesthetic investigation."

Do you find Serrano’s work moving, nauseating, or perhaps some combination of the two? In the video below Serrano discusses how he likes to “go below the surface” in his art such as photographing members of the KKK:

If you are interested in viewing some of his work please check out this Not Safe For Work video.

Online Sources- YouTube, Slate, The Latin Americanist, Village Voice

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