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Catholics protest artist's deliberately provocative show
Sheila Nonato
February 9, 2011
TORONTO - A private Toronto art gallery has received thousands of e-mails protesting its controversial exhibit featuring a “bullet-ridden” Pope Benedict XVI.Bezpala Brown Gallery president Darrell Brown said the gallery received about 8,000 e-mails in one hour from the American Catholic group America Needs Fatima which launched a web campaign against Peter Alexander Por’s exhibit “Persona Non Grata: The Veil of History,” running at the gallery Feb. 5-25.
Brown first promoted the exhibit with a provocative press release called “Pope shot, Obama crucified at the Bezpala Brown Gallery.”
“Pope Benedict XVI’s portrait is riddled with bullet holes, a less than subtle expression of the hurt and anger directed at a pontiff and an institution that has abandoned its flock, choosing to focus on dogma while its subjects suffer and, in many instances, die from its archaic policies,” the release read, referring to the clergy abuse scandal that has rocked the Church.
Joanne McGarry, executive director of the Catholic Civil Rights League, called the exhibit’s message “very insulting, very misleading and inaccurate.”
“Showing a bullet-ridden image of an identifiable public figure could be incitement to violence,” McGarry said.
But Por told The Register the portrait is not riddled with bullet holes. Rather, he explained the 37 holes, including one over the Pope’s left eye, and a hole at the edge of his right sleeve and another on his chest below his heart, which both hold up a blue rosary given to Por by his mother, represent a “visual pun” on the Pope as a “holey” man.
“In a way, I’m a court jester. I’ve told the Pope his story about the sex abuse is full of nonsense or gaps, and those are holes,” the 66-year-old artist said.
Last year, Pope Benedict XVI apologized to victims of the abuse and said the perpetrators “violated the sanctity of the sacrament of Holy Orders.”
The Pope is lumped in with a series of 30 portraits and four sculptures featuring evil leaders like Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Saddam Hussein, who were responsible for the deaths of millions of people, Por said.
Brown said the press release was intended to be controversial.
“Most people looking at this are immediately going to assume that it’s bullet holes and I thought if I put that out up front, it would certainly generate a reaction, there’s no question about that,” he said.
But McGarry found this marketing tool objectionable.
“People who exploit the scandal for promotional scandal is a disgrace. It’s not doing anything for victims,” she said.
Brown insisted the exhibit is not about attacking a religious leader but about “freedom of expression.” Yet Por and Brown, both ex-Catholics, spent much of the interview criticizing the Pope’s integrity and leadership, the Church and its teachings on contraception and priestly celibacy.