An exhibition by artist Cosimo Cavallaro has been cancelled after a campaign was launched against it on the ground that it was disrespectful towards Christianity.My Sweet Lord, a 6ft representation of Jesus, was to have been unveiled over holy week in a gallery in Manhattan but was withdrawn after complaints by the Catholic League. The group objected to the fact that the sculpture is made of more than 200lbs of chocolate and that the figure's genitalia are on display.
Sculptor Cosimo Cavallaro, 45, is known for his large-scale installations. In 1999 he covered a room of the Washington Jefferson hotel in New York with cheddar cheese. Two years later he sprayed 10,000lb of cheese over the entire interior of a house in Wyoming. Matt Semmler, director of the Lab, told the Guardian before the cancellation was announced that neither he nor the artist had any intention to offend. "For me this is done a place of reverence and meditation - that's why I chose the piece. This is not intended to be disrespectful." He added that over the centuries there had been thousands of depictions of Christ in many different styles.
Personally I'm not offended by a naked, chocolate Jesus but then I'm not religious. At least it should be a little more permanent that a house sprayed with over 4 tons of cheese or a bed with 312lbs of ham on it. I suppose these installations show just how fickle the art scene is - what is hailed as a masterpiece one day will stink the next...
