Now don’t get me wrong, I am not easily scandalized by art or performance. And I certainly don’t think I’m prudish. After all, I’m one of those New Yorkers who thinks he has seen it all. Yes, I’ve raised an eyebrow when I watched Karen Finley penetrate herself with yams in her installation at the club Area in the early 90s. Okay, I was startled when HIV-positive Ron Athey dripped blood over the audience (not his blood) at P.S. 122 in ‘94. But I’ve wondered what the big deal was when I saw Chris Ofili’s painting “Holy Virgin Mary” at the Sensation exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum in 1998–the painting that caused such an uproar in the Giuliani years in part because it was painted with dung. (more…)

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