Abu Ghraib - Is It Torture? Or Is It ART? You Decide!

Conceptual surrealistic photography through the ages: (above, figure 1.a) U.S. soldiers make a point by photographing themselves with naked Iraqi prisoners' bodies stacked in the form of a human pyramid, Iraq, 2004. Contrast this with (above, figure 1.b) famed photographer Philippe Halsman making a point of complimenting Salvador Dali with naked women's bodies stacked in the form of a skull, in his portrait "Dali's Skull," New York, 1952.
(click to enlarge images)

Photo documents of avant garde performance art through the ages? Case in point (above, figure 2.a), a photograph of U.S. soldiers psychologically torturing an Iraqi prisoner with crazy costumes and imaginary electricity, Iraq, 2004. Compare this with (above, figure 2.b) an early photograph of Dada-ist Hugo Ball psychologically torturing audience members with crazy costumes and imaginary poetry at Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, Switzerland, 1916.

United States government funded homoerotic, sadomasochistic photography through the ages? Consider the controversial photograph (above, figure 3.a) of U.S. soldiers urinating on an Iraqi prisoner, Iraq, 2004. Placed next to (above, figure 3.b) a photograph of two men urinating on each other, as documented in Robert Mapplethorpe's controversial "Jim and Tom, Sausalito, 1977."

U.S. government funded performance art depicting symbolic forms of perverse degradation and exploitation, through the ages? Take this document (above, figure 4.a) of U.S. soldiers smearing an Iraqi prisoner with his own feces and parading him around in front of them, Iraq, 2004. Next to renowned performance artist Karen Finley (above, figure 4.b), smearing herself with chocolate and parading herself in front of everybody, New York, 1982.

Government clampdowns on inappropriate subject matter through the ages? Is it redundant to mention the controversial 2005 Newsweek reportage (above, figure 5.a) of the flushing of the Koran in toilets at Guantanamo by U.S. interrogators, and Marcel Duchamp's controversial, riot-causing 1917 sculpture "Fountain" (above, figure 5.b)? IS IT TORTURE? OR IS IT ART? YOU DECIDE!

Comments

[Maximus]

Maybe portraying the Abu Ghraib abuses as avant-garde conceptual art will finally cause Rush Limbaugh to get outraged about them.

[telly]

Salvador, not Salvatore; "Fountain," not "Urinal." (Picky, picky...)

[fatty]

it *is* brilliant.

[as]

Otto Muhl would certainly consider it art. He's now in jail for doing this kind of "art" (with children)--and the Bush admin belongs there, too.

[krimur]

aw heck, why can't it be both!

[Krys O.]

Does this qualify as suffering for one's art?

[Joel]

The inverse is sometimes true: Listening to Xenakis is a torture to me...

[Russel]

I am sure this wouldn't be art if there were western people on the right hand side image, so before anyone wastes any more time discussing this, think about what opinions you would have if this was your farther, brother or husband. This is a real world with real problems. Wake up