Priscilla Bracks, a Brisbane artist, has people talking about Jesus and Osama Bin Laden with her work, “Bearded Orientals”, entered in the Blake Prize for Religious Art competition.
Bracks says that her work is concerned with relationships between contemporary popular culture, and the futures we (for better or for worse) create. It is not intended as a statement but rather as a means to ask questions. In particular, she’s questioning the relationships between media, popular culture, and the development of truth, history and ideology.
“When you observe these two people, Osama Bin Ladin and Jesus, their ethics could not be more different. The only comparison that can be made is historical: both pursued by two of the world’s most powerful armies – the US and the Roman armies. Jesus is clearly defined by history, but I am interested in how history will treat the image of Osama.”
“To me this work is a cautionary tale about our fixation with crime, violence and catastrophe. Access to information is important and there are instances where this has been well balanced with the temptation to sensationalise. No war was declared against the Lockerby bombers. Instead they were extradited and tried for murder amidst media coverage that left few people with a lingering memory of their names. Similarly, Martin Bryant was moved to an inner cell in his Tasmanian prison to ensure his media attention did not turn him into a cult figure like Charles Manson. There is a wisdom in this approach that has been forgotten in the case of Bin Laden, and this lapse may have unintended, unwelcome effects in the future.”
“The controversy surrounding works on exhibition in this year’s Blake prize for Religious Art is an indication of why art is such a powerful means of exploring cultural and religious difference”, claimed Chair of the Blake Prize, Rev Rod Pattenden.
Rev Pattenden said of the controversy, “Whilst I am disappointed with the sensationalist beat up in some parts of the media I think there is a real nerve being hit here. I have received several angry phone calls from people claiming religious allegiance who have expressed themselves with clear hatred and violence towards other religious groups. Art and the Blake prize, in particular, does our culture a service when it can make us aware of our prejudices, out hatreds and the intolerance that sometimes underlies some forms of belief.”
Kevin Rudd and John Howard are both quoted by the media as saying the Bearded Orientals work insults the Christian heritage of Australia.
Andrew Bolt, columnist with Melbourne’s newspaper The Age, claims that the acceptance of the Bearded Orientals work in the Blake Prize competition is an example of the niceness of Christianity – too afraid to stand up for itself.
The dissonance caused by placing the two figures together is what makes this more than just a provocative dig at Christianity. As Bracks suggests, there are deeper issues at stake, regarding the way in which Australia’s engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan will be seen in the fullness of time. Christians have the opportunity to engage in meaningful intelligent conversation here, as do members of the press.
The irony in all of this is that the portrayal of Jesus in the second portrait reveals the domestication of his image. Would Jesus really have been wearing a cross? Carrying one maybe. But not as a fashion statement. And as for hair spray and gold-encrusted robe… Jesus has been made in the image of the original painter’s patrons.