Controversial Art Exhibit in Vancouver

[earth_as_one]

"The exhibit is called Theatre of the World, one piece in a large career retrospective of renowned Chinese installation artist Huang Yong Ping. The show opened at the VAG last week, to mixed reviews. While not the biggest or most complex of Mr. Huang's work, or even the smelliest -- the lion cages have that distinction-- Theatre of the World is certainly the most macabre. And discussed. And disgusting, say some critics."
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=919c281b-9685-430b-8716-da34525912fd&k=4176

Basically its an enclosure consisting of various insects, reptiles, spiders, cockroaches, toads, scorpions... And is a statement about the earth as a chaotic battlefield. Crickets numbers are dwindling...
Art, education or cruelty to animals?

 

[enjoy-toronto]

cruelty to animals, of course!

 

[earth_as_one]

I agree, but I can also see elements of education and art. Can you see any merit in this exhibit?

 

[L Gilbert]

One man's garbage/sh|t/porn/pick-a-word is another's art.

 

[earth_as_one]

 

[earth_as_one]

An update:

Rights of insects, reptiles trump artistic freedom

Renowned Chinese artist's piece gone


WENDY STUECK
From Monday's Globe and Mail

VANCOUVER — The lizard lounged, the crickets chirped and the tarantulas perched on fuzzy legs at the edges of a turtle-shaped enclosure, oblivious to their role as stars in a battle of artistic freedom versus animal-welfare concerns.
That was yesterday. As of today, however, the creatures — part of an exhibit called Theatre of the World by renowned Chinese artist Huang Yong Ping — will be gone, removed after the Vancouver Art Gallery decided it could not comply with additional orders from the British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals without compromising the artist's work.
The gallery had already made changes to address the agency's concerns about living conditions for reptiles and insects that were part of the exhibit, VAG chief curator Daina Augaitis said yesterday.
But when the B.C. SPCA said the tarantulas and scorpions had to go, the gallery bit back, concluding Saturday that it was unable to accommodate the latest order after consulting with the artist.
Related to this article

A patron of the Vancouver Art Gallery in Vancouver, B.C., views the living reptiles in the art piece titled 'Theatre of the World' by Huang Yong Ping on April 6, 2007. The local humane society has called the exhibit cruel. (Richard Lam/Special to the Globe and Mail)...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070416.wgallery16/BNStory/Entertainment/home