The Assassination of Obama and Clinton-Art Exhibit

[MsWikia]

The Assassination of Barack Obama: Freedom of expression or racism?

A controversial art exhibit was raided and shut down before it could be viewed in NYC yesterday.

According to the NY Times blog: Cityroom, Boston-born performance artist, Yazmany Arboleda, tried to set up a provocative art exhibition in a vacant storefront on West 40th Street in Midtown Manhattan with the title, "The Assassination of Hillary Clinton/The Assassination of Barack Obama".

The artist thought his racist views were protected under the Constitution because he was expressing himself through his art. Wrong.

Not 30 minutes after Arboleda set up the gallery across the street from the New York Times building, police, feds and secret service swooped in to shut the art exhibit down. While police covered the offensive storefront window with brown paper, Arboleda was led away in handcuffs to be "interrogated".

Arboleda, 27, learned the hard way that freedom has its limits. Later, in an interview, he said: "It's art. It's not supposed to be harmful. It's about character assassination -- about how Obama and Hillary have been portrayed by the media." He added, "It's about the media."

See the photos below.

The Assassination of Barack Obama: Freedom of expression or racism?

Here is the website with some pictures: sandrarose.com Blog Archive The Assassination of Barack Obama: Freedom of expression or racism? OR Assassination art in the line of fire

 

[Ravi]

Can't see the photos. Why was it considered racist?

 

[MsWikia]

Is it just your computer or are the photos not showing up?? The photos are ridiculous.

 

[MsWikia]

Oh ok they aren't showing up. Let me try again.

 

[007]

Oh ok they aren't showing up. Let me try again.

Welcome to Flickr - Photo Sharing

 

[editec]

I can't see them either

 

[MsWikia]

Ok I think I fixed it.

 

[Ravi]

lol!

That sure does look racist.

What was the one about Hillary? I only saw the Obama pics.

 

[MsWikia]

I dont know that's the only pics I saw too. Hillary's name is on the front of the door but they don't have any display pics about her (yet).



The guy who created this has to be crazy. It's ashame that this is probably only the beginning of race related outbursts.

 

[007]

I still don't see any pics....

 

[Contessa_Sharra]

NEW YORK (WABC) -- An exhibit titled "The Assassination of Hillary Clinton/The Assassination of Barack Obama" was shut down in Midtown Manhattan Wednesday.
The Boston-born performance artist, Yazmany Arboleda, set up the art exhibition at 264 West 40th Street, a vacant storefront.

Arboleda wrote "The Assassination of Hillary Clinton/The Assassination of Barack Obama," in white stenciled letters on the front window.

NYPD officers and Secret Service agents quickly shut down the exhibition.


Arboleda, who said the exhibit is "art," was taken to the Midtown South police precinct for questioning. While the title is certainly suggestive, the 27-year-old artist says it has nothing to do with violence.

Once authorities determined Arboleda wasn't a danger to the powerful Democrats, he was released.

The exhibition was to open on Thursday and run all day.

Arboleda has even set up elaborate Web sites, one for Mrs. Clinton and one for Mr. Obama, that purported to be for exhibitions held earlier this year at galleries in Chelsea. (In fact, there were no such exhibitions and the galleries, the Leah Keller Gallery and the Naomi Gates Gallery, are evidently fictitious.)

Arboleda's Web site says he was born in Boston and lives in New York City.

He holds a Master's degree in architecture and has been trained in photography, painting, fashion design and graphic design. His first solo show, "The New Vitruvians," was presented at Issey Miyake Tribeca in 2007.
(Copyright ©2008 WABC-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

7online.com: Clinton/Obama assassination exhibit closed 6/04/08

 

[Contessa_Sharra]

'Assassination' of Clinton, Obama artist questioned, vows to reopen installation


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BY ALISON GENDAR, STEPHANIE GASKELL AND CORKY SIEMASZKO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Updated Wednesday, June 4th 2008, 10:29 PM

The piece is part of the installation Yazmany Arboleda entitled, 'The Assassination of Barack Obama.'



One of Arboleda's works focuses on Hillary's fashion sense. Click for more images of works from the exhibit.


<!-- ARTICLE CONTENT START -->An artist looking to make it big got the attention of the Secret Service on Wednesday with an exhibit called "The Assassination of Hillary Clinton/The Assassination of Barack Obama."

Yazmany Arboleda, whose button-pushing shows barely caused a ripple in Chelsea, was grilled by agents after he had the provocative title stenciled on the windows of a W. 40th St. storefront.

Arboleda was questioned for an hour and publicly denounced by Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly before he was released. He was not charged with a crime. "It's my right as an artist to have that sign up," the defiant 27-year-old artist said after he was sprung.

Arboleda insisted his show was about the media's "character assassination" of the candidates. He intends to open his exhibit today.
"There's no blood, there's no guns, there's no reference to violence," he said. "My work is about words and how the media has torn [the candidates] apart."

Kelly called Arboleda's inflammatory art "totally inappropriate."
"This is all under investigation," Kelly said. "Obviously it could be interpreted as advocating harm. Our lawyers are researching it to determine if there are any violations of law."

Clinton was in town, and Obama was en route to the city a day after he clinched the Democratic Party's presidential nomination when Arboleda got his 15 minutes of fame.

Born in Boston, raised partly in Colombia, and based in New York, Arboleda said he was sleeping when cops swooped down on the storefront at 9:30 a.m.

"I woke up frantically after two hours of sleep," he said. "The landlord said, 'There's a ton of police here, what did you do? They padlocked the building. They said you need to take down the sign.' "

While Arboleda was questioned "about his motivation," cops had maintenance workers tape brown paper over the tempest-inducing title on the plate glass windows.

Arboleda said he was grilled about guns and asked if he'd been institutionalized and whether he'd ever attended any campaign rallies.
There was no such fuss when Arboleda's Obama and Clinton installations made their debut in the city in March.

"The Assassination of Barack Obama" was on display for all of that month at the Naomi Gates Gallery on W. 22nd St. in Chelsea.

"The installation explores the figurative, but highly effective attempts by the American populace to assassinate Barack Obama's reputation," a Gates Gallery press release says.

It describes Arboleda's style as "take no prisoners" and the show featured nooses and other racially charged symbols. Any potential public outrage was dampened by the gallery's insistence that the show be viewed by appointment only "due to the highly sensitive and controversial nature of the material presented."

"The Assassination of Hillary Clinton" ran simultaneously at the Leah Keller Gallery on W.24th St. Among other things, it featured unflattering head shots of Clinton and was also by appointment only.
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Read the comments after the piece, at the link.

As for either character assassination - well, that ispolitics!

About the other, I cannot see why people will not face that 500 ton elephant in the room, as it goesto partsof this country'sissues that the head in the sand 75% just refuse to admit does exist!

 

[JimH52]

How about an exhibit called "The Death of John McCain from natural causes"

Whatcha think?