Norwegian sculptures censored

Gustav Vigeland’s sculptures in Oslo’s Vigeland Park awoke Thusday, to their surprise, wearing clothes — well, black squares anyway. As reported by CBC.ca, a person or group of people covered the statues genitals and breasts, leaving a note that talked about how Norwegian newspapers showed too much nudity. The note was signed F.M.N.H.

Boing-boing referred to the perpetrators as “prudes” — a bit hasty judgment on their part, methinks. The spot goes on to rightly say, “You know, the insidious thing about nudity is that not one of us is safe. Beneath our clothes, deep down, we are all, every one of us, nude.” The CBC article reports some feel the incident is a prank, while others call it vandalism. A comment on Art Threat says it was a prank by students of Westerdal.

It’s hard for me to call it vandalism as no permanent damage was done to the sculptures. Why not call it performance art? Were I the sculptor (and still alive) I would laugh!

European sentiments about nudity are very different — usually more liberal — than American. Just ask friends of mine who put up a German student in between apartments. He would come out of the bathroom from showering in the buff with no reservations. My friends (female) were, needless to say, very surprised.

How do we (Can we?) strike a balance between the God-endowed beauty of the human body and the mystery of our sexuality? The cynic in me knows it’s a lost cause. The optimist in me can’t help but try.

Digg this!