India Uncut
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Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Monstrously Ugly Sentence 1
Be that as it may, viewed dispassionately and without getting too much into the vortex of morality (since indecency, like beauty, is in the eyes of the beholder), I, for one, cannot escape the conclusion that the sight of disgustingly ugly naked bodies, with misplaced pretensions to attractiveness, is positively repugnant, even to a philistinee judge of works of art — or of the human anatomy, for that matter — like yours truly.Khalid Ansari, writing in the tabloid he owns, Mid Day, in an article expressing displeasure at this installation. One of my old friends, and a blogger to boot, took part in it, and I applaud her courage and her spirit. And I am appalled that anyone can condemn it in the manner Ansari does: you may think of it as pretentious or bad art, or as gimmickry, but to want to impinge on the personal freedoms of the people who took part, and the artist who put it together, is more "repugnant" than the bodies Ansari tastelessly deplores. There is something very ugly in Ansari's article, and it isn't in the photograph.
Update: On a tangent, Arun Simha points to this nice comment by Andy Rooney.
