"Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere."
--G.K. Chesterton
"The man's body is sacred and the woman's body is sacred.../Each belongs here or anywhere just as much as the well-off, just as much as you."
--Walt Whitman
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According to the Buddha, right speech is a statement that is timely, true, kind, helpful (connected to liberation), and spoken with a mind of good-will. Let us all try to observe this precept.
A controversial artist outraged city Catholics yesterday with plans to display a nude 6-foot chocolate Jesus during Holy Week.
Cosimo Cavallaro's anatomically-correct candy Christ, titled "My Sweet Lord," was made from almost 200 pounds of dark chocolate. The sculpture is to be displayed in a street-level window at the Roger Smith Hotel's Lab Gallery on E. 47th St. starting Monday.
Much as I'm intrigued by the idea of three of my favorite things in one place, this kind of artwork stopped being avant-garde several decades ago. From Jesus' standpoint, the most offensive aspect of this statue is probably the waste of good chocolate in a world where millions go hungry.
On the other hand, since the statue already exists, having a congregation dismember and consume it at Easter might be a powerful way to bring home to people the reality of Christ's sacrifice and our sinfulness. Shouting "crucify him" is nothing compared to chopping up a life-size body of Jesus, with your very own hands. Now that would be avant-garde.
