Artist Displays "Who Killed Barack Obama?"

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Polish artist Peter Fuss has raised quite a, er, fuss with his piece, "Who Killed Barack Obama?" recently on display in Poland. The piece, which depicts a wounded Obama, is part of the city scape aspect of the "Out of Sth" project. The website describes the project as presenting "the art of 20 leading European and Polish artists whose art derives from broadly understood urban art...Classical or political graffiti was a significant point for the development of each invited guest."

The Obama Art Report contacted Fuss to get his explanation of the controversial piece. His response:

This is not a piece of work against Obama, as much as it is not an act of support for McCain. Neither is this work about less or more probable Obama's assassination. This piece of art is about global thought of Obama's unavoidable death. About the fact that so many people in the entire world share one opinion: Barack Obama is to follow the same story as Kennedy, Lincoln, M.L.King or Malcolm X previously did. And this is due to various reasons: cause he is young, alike Kennedy, cause his black, because he is ready for the radical change. Politicians fall into the same stereotype of thinking. Even Hillary Clinton expressed the same view.

It is interesting, that on the one hand, people take pride in democracy, they believe that through taking part in elections they have an real impact on the shape of politics and they determine the future of countries and societies. On the other hand, the same people do realise, that politics is a dirty cynical game and that an individual, like Obama, indentified with hope and progress, the change of the current status quo, those individuals are, sooner or later, to loose, to be condemned to death. Unless they became a part of the current status quo.

Okay, sure. But still. What the hell?

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Comments (11) [rss]

Postmodern thought/art has been unmoored from the obligation of making a coherent argument. One need only project him/her/itself into the world.

But, really, it all just comes off as pretentious bullshit.

Artist: "Blah, blah, blah. Look at me! Oh, and did I mention me?"

I was hoping the explanation would recontextualize it and illustrate a point. Nope.

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the idea of Obama's assassination never occurred to me as inevitable. am i naive or missing the point?

Marcus: You have no feel for the power of art.

Curmudgeon - I feel ashamed and uncultured.

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This artist is totally full of it. Barack Obama ready for "Radical Change"? Hilarious!

Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing, and I applaude you for using it. I just wish you would have been a little more thoughtful about the subject matter, wishing someone (hince the title and drawing) is deplorable. BESIDES HE CAN'T POSSIBLY BE ANY WORSE THAN WHAT WE;VE HAD IN THE PAST 100 YEARS, AND HE AT LEAST NEEDS TO HAVE THE CHANCE TO BE ALL THAT HE CAN BE.

maybe the artist is commenting on the change in B Obama his attempts to move to the so called center. It could be a comment on the death of Obama's principles in an attempt to get elected.

Or an attempt to make news by being outrageous

Fed up, that's what I thought it was about, before reading the story.

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