Photos of the Day 11/18 - The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com

Photos of the Day 11/18 - The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com: An Indian villager makes cow dung cakes, and arranges them to be sun dried on the banks of the River Ganges in Allahabad, India. Cow dung cakes are a major source of domestic fuel for rural households and an environment friendly alternative to firewood.

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Chris Ofili

Christopher Ofili, known as Chris Ofili (born 10 October 1968), is a Turner Prize-winning Nigerian/British painter best known for artworks incorporating elephant dung. He was one of theYoung British Artists. Since 2005, Ofili has been living and working in Trinidad, where he currently resides in Port of Spain.

THE HOLY VIRGIN MARY

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Controversy

The Holy Virgin Mary and Mayor Giuliani

One of his paintings, The Holy Virgin Mary, a depiction of the Virgin Mary, was at issue in a lawsuit between the mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, and the Brooklyn Museum of Art when it was exhibited there in 1999 as a part of the "Sensation" exhibit. The painting depicted a Black Madonna surrounded by images from blaxploitation movies and close-ups of female genitalia cut from pornographic magazines, and elephant dung. These were formed into shapes reminiscent of the cherubim and seraphim commonly depicted in images of the Immaculate conception and the Assumption of Mary. Following the scandal surrounding this painting, Bernard Goldberg ranked Ofili #86 in 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America. Red Grooms showed his support of the artist by purchasing one of Ofili's paintings in 1999, even after Giuliani famously exclaimed, “There’s nothing in the First Amendment that supports horrible and disgusting projects!”