If a madman sprayed five tons of pepper jack cheese on a suburban home, covered the inside of a New York City hotel room with melted mozzarella cheese or draped 312 pounds of sliced ham on a beautiful four-poster bed, he might rightfully be taken back to the asylum. However, in today’s modern world, such bizarre creations are actually called “art” and taken seriously by major media.
The “artist” is Canadian-born Cosimo Cavallaro, whose strange works now include a life-size sculpture of an entirely nude figure made in chocolate suspended on an invisible cross. To add insult to injury, the figure, meant to be Jesus, is surrounded by more traditional depictions, also in chocolate, of the Blessed Mother and several saints. The display called “Chocolate Saints…Sweet Jesus,” will be on display from Oct. 27 to Nov. 24 at the Proposition Gallery in New York City’s Chelsea district.
The blasphemous portrayal of Our Lord in fact does not look like Christ at all but rather that of a suspended almost flying figure with outstretched arms. The original figure attracted widespread indignation last spring when the Roger Smith Lab Gallery placed the stark naked chocolate figure in a ground-floor window during Holy Week. Due to public outcry, the show was cancelled. The piece was then put in storage in Brooklyn where it was eaten by rodents and rats.
Now the show is back and with it the controversy. According to gallery director Ronald Sosinski, the recast “Christ” and added saints is timed to coincide with All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, which he mistakenly identified both days as Holy Days of Obligation. {note}1[/note] It is hard to understand why the director thinks such a display in the midst of similar bizarre works would be attract devote normal Catholics on holy days.
It seems that in the fantasy world of avant garde art, Cavallaro’s cheese-sprayed hotel rooms and flying chocolate Christ figures are all seen as somehow normal and called works of art.
However, in the real world, a pornographic display of a chocolate male figure not resembling in any way the august figure of Our Lord Jesus Christ comes across to millions not as art but blasphemy.
The American TFP promoted an email protest.