The title says it all. Artist Cosimo Cavallaro has recently managed the simple task of pissing off the Catholic Church. Simple because it’s really not too difficult to create offensive art, the real skill is in creating something that actually has some semblance of aesthetic appeal past the initial frisson of excitement one feels when viewing something that’s going to rile religious (or other) authorities.
It’s the medium in particular of Cavallaro’s piece that has drawn our attention - chocolate. This is nothing new in terms of artistic practice and Cavallaro himself has indeed experimented with food-stuffs as medium before: his cheese series featured works such as a Cheese Boot, Cheese Chair and a room covered in cheese, entitled rather cunningly, Cheese Room. Cavallaro tends to take things to extremes though, with his cheese series he ended up creating Cheese House.
Opening soon at LAB in New York, My Sweet Lord is a 1.8 metre suspended sculpture of Jesus in his traditional cross-pose. This, of course, is usual Church-based fare - you can find a depiction of a spread-armed Jesus at just about any Cathedral or Church around the world - except for the fact that Cavallaro’s is made entirely of chocolate. So, naturally, the Catholics are angry, speaking to the BBC, a spokesperson for the Catholic League said that the sculpture is, “… one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever.”
And consider the fact that Cavallaro is of Italian parentage! It just makes the whole notion of giant choco-effigys of JC so much more delicious for us and potentially harder to swallow for the Catholic Church.
So, is the Catholic League being a tad over-sensitive? Could this really be one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever. A Chocolate Christ at a small (but no less influential) gallery in New York? I don’t remember Tom Waits having so much trouble with his song of immaculate confection. It seems that as soon as Cavallaro gave visual form to this notion, it seriously affected the sensibilities of certain religious groups. I suppose one man’s food of the Gods is another’s blasphemy.
Perhaps this could be an emerging theme? If so, we can’t wait for Cavallaro’s Bacon Chief Rabbi.
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