May 08, 2004
sexual ambiguities
Andres Serrano's History of Sex (Christian and Rose):
Serrano's History of Sex was shown in October 1997 in Melbourne.
At the same time Andres Serrano's controversial Piss Christ was shown in another exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV).
If you recall, the Piss Christ, like this piece, was held to be offensive as it failed to take into consideration general (community) standards of decency in the US. Conservative Christians in Melbourne sought to exclude the art work from the public realm on the grounds that Serrano had profaned a sacred object. Serrano, they might consider, has in effect pissed on God. Serrano was deemed to have transgressed the sacred with the ultimate profanity of pissing on Christ (ie., God)
At the time showing the Piss Christ in an art exhibition at the NGV was deemed by conservative Catholics to be a symbol of the excess of secular liberalism.
Serrano considers his work to be religious not sacrilegious. His earlier abstract compositions used urine, blood, semen and milk.
Andres Serrano, Blood and Semen II
Piss Christ is a religious symbol depicted in the first of these fluids.