Art Shock Of Explicit Christ

TimesOnline reports that an art gallery has offended Christians and visitors alike by displaying a statue showing Christ with an erection. The sculpture, by the gay Chinese-born artist Terence Koh, is being exhibited by the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead. The exhibition, entitled Gone, Yet Still, features 74 different plaster models of people or objects which Koh, 30, claims have been important in his life. As well as the 18in statue of Christ, there are models of Mickey Mouse and ET, dipped into plaster. They also have erect penises attached. The Baltic Centre, which opened in 2003 after a £35m grant from the Arts Council, has placed signs outside the exhibition warning people of the works’ explicit nature. The Baltic says it has no plans to remove the offending art. “Koh is trying to explain all the things which have meant something to him,” said a gallery spokesman. “It is a sort of mausoleum.” The artist’s works can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars in America where he now lives. In 2006, two other controversial art works by Koh were withdrawn shortly before USA Today, an exhibition curated by Charles Saatchi, the advertising tycoon, at the Royal Academy. (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art