re: dave - farewell to arms
Art is meant to provoke, stimulate: which this piece has done. Its not meant to be good bad etc. The Israeli ambassador, by interacting with the piece, is now part of the piece, a work in progress.
All thru time art has been seen as the voice of free expression and has therefore been the subject of political attention.
Shostakovich composed pieces that ridiculed the Soviet system but he was never picked up; perhaps Stalin found it amusing or maybe he never twigged the irony. He used to sleep downstairs by the front door, he thought that if the goons came knocking in the night they would get him first and spare his family.
The connection to Guernica is another irony, Franco was supported by the US in the struggle of capitalism vs socialism. Francos' win was the signal for Hitler and Mussolini to swing into action against the threat of communism.
Anyway due to the outrage expressed at Stockholm the artist has gained global publicity and the suicide bomber is now known as Snow White.
