This Art Show Really Stinks! Egg bombs get removed from a New York art gallery just days before Easter
Released on: March 20, 2008, 4:29 am
Press Release Author: Center for Tactical Magic
Industry: Entertainment
Press Release Summary: Art work gets destroyed by a gallery director in NY. Does the art stink? Or, is it corporate censorship of the artists?
Press Release Body: While it's not uncommon to see audiences turn their noses up at contemporary art, a recent project by the art group, Center for Tactical Magic (CTM), has one gallery director pinching her nostrils. The military-style packing crate filled with a dozen egg-shaped stink bombs was installed at the ISE Cultural Foundation's SOHO gallery for an exhibition titled "Food in the Form of Activism". A week later, the work was destroyed by the gallery director, Tomi Ise, who found it too offensive to tolerate.
According to Aaron Gach, spokesman for the Center for Tactical Magic, "We mixed together ordinary ingredients to produce a unique sensory experience that directly relates to consumer's choices in the supermarket." Each of the stink bombs is made from a pungent cocktail consisting of milk, eggs, sugar, and raw chicken. "The smell is an important part of the work as it reminds people that their choices have lingering effects, especially when they sit idly by and let things stagnate," says Mr. Gach.
But according to the curator of the exhibition, Brianna Toth, it was not the smell that drove Ms. Ise to action, but the politics of the work. "When artists in the show found out that the gallery was funded by ISE America, one of the largest and most-controversial factory farms for egg production, several of them wanted to respond creatively."
In addition to receiving fines for animal rights abuses, ISE America is currently being sued for their apparently misleading use of an "animal care certified" logo on egg cartons.
Corporate Censorship of an Art Show?
Although the gallery initially agreed to show the Center for Tactical Magic's art installation, the critical work of several other artists was denied or withdrawn from the exhibition. "If the exhibition were called 'Food in the Form of Corporate White-washing' I could understand Ms. Ise's objections to our project," says Gach, who refutes Ms. Ise's, contention that she removed the work due to the smell. "The only thing that stinks in that gallery is their behavior, and no amount of art will be enough to mask that stench."
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