Art: Blasphemy & Devotion



Art: Blasphemy & Devotion

A. “A Fire in My Belly,” Was Taken Out Of the Hide/Seek Exhibition

Wojnarowicz's video, “A Fire in My Belly,” was based in the collage work, which reflects the sufferings and pains of those who are affected with AIDs. In this painting, artist used religious imagery, which presented a video of crucifix crawling with ants. This exhibition was the part of the "Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture" (Judkis, 2010), a great show on the topic of sexual identity in National Portrait Gallery in 2010. This video was taken out from the exhibition for various reasons. The three main reasons for the removal of this portrait were that it present negative social and religious image, these images might be offensive for some viewers and that the video is sacrilegious or contains elements of blasphemy (Judkis, 2010).

1. Negative Social Image: One of the main reasons was that, this video contains negative social image and instead of presenting the sufferings of AIDs this video reflects the aspects of hopelessness, decaying image and concept of death. This perfectly reveals the worst social and psychological image for the patients of AIDs and their families.

2. Offensive and Out of Context: This video contains various scenes, which are offensive for the public and not appropriate for all. This exhibition was mainly intended for the sexual identity and instead of this; the video reflected the image of death and AIDs (Judkis, 2010). The images were reflected in the most offensive way, and humiliating social and religious beliefs of people.

3. Sacrilegious or Contains Elements of Blasphemy: One most important reason for taking out this video from the exhibition was that, this video presented the sacrilegious images or contains elements of blasphemy. The image of crucifix and Christ crawling with ants ...