IvyGate Galleries: Young Christian Soldiers
We kind of launch a new series around here every other day, some with more success than others. But we were pretty excited about IvyGate Galleries — basically, ivyTunes for art — when we announced it last month. There is some ludicrous slash good student art out there, and we were looking forward to dropping it bloodily into your commenting maw.
Alas, the submissions haven’t exactly poured in. Why the lack of interest? Maybe all the campus artists are too busy mainlining peyote and hurling their paint-lathered genitals against Chinese takeout menus — or whatever gets you an A in studio these days — to notice our solicitation. Maybe seeking publicity for your oeuvre reeks of commerce, man. Whatever the case, alert your fartsy friends that we’re looking, and in the meantime we’ll cheat a little with this initial salvo by Cornell’s Brad Wilson ‘07.
Huge disclaimer: Half of us went to high school with Brad, and we actually appear in one of the images in the series (not pictured). It’s titled “Young Christian Soldiers,” and each frame reenacts a scene from the life of a Catholic saint; that’s St. Kevin above, whose caption reads: “Following his ordination as a priest, he lived as a hermit for seven years in his own filth in a cave at Glendalough.” More from the series are after the jump, but first we should probably sound a huge !WARNING! that there’s some nudity and sacrilegious stuff there.
St. Joan of Arc - She was put on trial by an ecclesiastical court, and burned at the stake as a heretic. In 1456 her case was re-tried, and Joan was acquitted (23 years too late).
St. Cyriacus - A worker in the baths of Diocletian in Rome, St. Cyriacus exorcised demons from the emperor’s daughter.
St. Agnes - Agnes was ordered to sacrifice to pagan gods and lose her virginity by rape. She was taken to a Roman temple, and then tortured when she refused to turn against her heavenly spouse, the ‘Lamb of God.’ She was beheaded.
St. Brandon - St. Brandon came upon a flock of birds. They sang so beautifully, that he prayed to God to know what these birds were saying. A bird flew over to him and said: “Sometime we were angels in heaven, but when our master Lucifer fell down into hell for his high pride, we fell with him for our offences, and because our trespass is but little, therefore our Lord hath set us here.”
St. Klaus - Upon hearing that a local man had fallen on such hard times that he was planning to sell his daughters into prostitution, Nicholas went by night to the man’s house and delivered a gift of gold, saving the girls from an evil life.
The patron saint of young lovers, St. Valentine was beheaded by Romans in 269AD.
St. Sebastian - Charged by the Roman government as a Christian, Sebastian was tied to a tree, shot with arrows, and left for dead. He survived, recovered, and returned to preach to Diocletian. The emperor then had him beaten to death.
St. Francis of Nagasaki - An adult convert to Catholicism by missionaries, he carried a set of rosary beads even before his conversion.
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March 6th, 2007 at 5:52 pm
I know Brad very well. He really does produce great, off the wall art.
March 6th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
It’s not as blasphemous as I thought. Quite good taste, as a matter of fact. It stimulates pondering as to how anyone of average sensibilities today could appreciate what these saints lived and experienced. Maybe not at all, maybe a little, or maybe we have to translate it all into standard TV or movie images we can relate to. I guess we’ll never know what they really experienced?
March 6th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
That was quite the kicker there at the end.
March 6th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
Not with one bit of condescension do I say this: the art above is pretty good, and I can see how it fits with your call for ‘art’. At the same time, it shows some of the weaknesses of the current project. Really, a lot of the exciting art out there right now are multimedia set creations, not two dimensional constructs (like photography) that one can easily jpeg to you guys with the next email. Say we have a Mona Hatoum in our midsts, sending a picture of her work just won’t do it much justice. So yeah, I applaud your efforts, but I do think this electronic medium with which you engage art will be self-limiting to a considerable degree. That said, I would love to see more photography from this guy Brad Wilson.
March 6th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
Oh risley!
March 6th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
What is my nice Jewish daughter doing in a nun’s habit? Okay, I understand the anal rosary but the nun’s habit? I’m plotzing!
March 7th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
Fantastic stuff–Brad, you gotta get yourself out here to CA, think of the possibilities!
March 7th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Absolutely gorgeous. The commentary text under each one puts each in a “special” light. Well done!
March 7th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
I have to say, the inclusion of the marshmallow really makes the Joan of Arc picture. And, as in the way I read the story, in a relevant, non-blasphemous way.
March 7th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
For those of us at work who visit straight from an RSS feed bookmark it would have been nice if the thread title had said NSFW.
March 7th, 2007 at 10:16 pm
does this guy have a website? this is actually good photography, would love to see more.
March 8th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Hey the cia works here again. Remember me, christianarchisti, your Daddy paid to watch me have sex with his hooker first to warm her open while he paid for another young ladies oral argument and watched me. The photo is near similar to the one tha cia dossier has in it’s file on me. Ooooh a little psychological terror. In your face, my gal’s best pal got paid to sew your daddies knob shut with a needle and thread and that’s in my dossier also. The rich love to pay to ride bareback, what’d your daddy bring home last night.
March 14th, 2007 at 11:22 am
What would be so bad about paint-lathered genitals on a takeout menu? Maybe the genital part would hint a bit too much at some kind of personal expression, but if it were painted geometric shapes instead I think that would be quite good; maybe around fifteen menus, each with one of two or three different shapes, and affixed to the wall by some means. It would be a good derivation of some of Michael Krebber’s work, with a slight difference.
March 20th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
This is a disgusting display.
The artist should be glad he didn’t depict Muslims in this manner or else he would be dead by tomorrow.
March 20th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
This is cowardice at its most pathetic.
Mr. Wilson returns to the typical target of Catholics for his sacrilegious depictions.
Did he show Mohammad? Of course not! Muslims would have rioted the moment this hit the ‘net.
More typical Ivy League irreligion…
March 20th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
This is cowardice. This is sickening. This is pathetic. Above all, this is SACRILEGIOUS!! Whoever created such “art” work better be prepared for God’s wrath.
March 20th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
These photos could have been done by the possessed girl in “The Exorcist.”
Dude: Get a life. Learn how to be creative, and try to think of something new; acting like a a Bolshevist communist is so tired.
March 20th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
This guy is seriously sick in the head. I’m glad I had a British university education and not some scummy Ivy League nonsense - if this character is a standard to just the rest, that is.
March 20th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
It’s simply amazing what passes for education in the Ivy League these days.
Contact the administration and ask for a refund - you’re clearly not getting your money’s worth.
March 20th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
I’m sure you think you’re very talented–and PROVOCATIVE, too! A great artist, to be sure. But ask yourself: if you weren’t just deliberately and crudely offending a very old and valuable religion, would people even look twice at these mediocre photographic creations?
I certainly wouldn’t.
March 20th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
I am embarrassed for you. As a Cornell alumna who was quite active in the Catholic community there, I can tell you that you make Cornell look quite foolish in accepting someone lacking such decency, intelligence, or talent. Go Big Red… If I were not completely confident in how boring and boorish all of this is, I would try to take more issue with the religious slur. As it is, however, I would be giving far too much credit to the rubbish passing as art that this is.
March 20th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Interesting how the barbarians and their vulgarities come and go over the centuries, whilst the big bad Church, the originator of public health care and education, the cradle of art, architecture, music and literature, continues to keep alight the flame of civilization. Twenty centuries now. Something for bored adolescent college students to thing about…
March 21st, 2007 at 2:19 am
Man. March 20 sure was a tough day for critics…
March 21st, 2007 at 2:37 am
I also have the feeling “Catholic Cornell Alumna” might be Ignatius J Reilly in disguise…
March 21st, 2007 at 7:41 am
You call this art? Nothing but trash! I hope you are learning something at your high priced school that you can make a living at because art is not going to be it. I hope you have another day of tough critics!
March 21st, 2007 at 8:32 am
I can’t believe this!! Why you would post these astounding pictures. You are taking a snapshot of the lives of the saints and showing it as filth. What a Christians everywhere should be disgraced to know of your doing! This is just CRAP!!! The lives of the saints are beautiful and should be honored….perhaps we should release some pictures like this of YOU! Do you not have anything better to do with your time? I guess not.
March 21st, 2007 at 9:44 am
You have it all wrong, dear suspicious twit. Alumna is the feminine singular, and as such I am a woman. Having not wasted my education at Cornell by trying to offend for the sake of Art, I actually can can make intelligent critiques without trying to sound clever through name calling using characters in a novel just read for an English Lit class. Actually, I suggest the “artist” visit the MoMA (oh right, I forget who I am addressing: boys and girls this is the Museum of Modern Art) and then get some clue about contemporary art. Of course, that requires work and I can see here that the “artist” has decided to sacrifice intelligence, taste, and talent on the altar of cheap thrills.
March 21st, 2007 at 3:58 pm
Ignatius(ette) dear, kindly get out of your bedroom and go find a job peddling meat products. Flaming art students is not the way to improve Catholicism’s popularity.
March 21st, 2007 at 4:00 pm
Does the Pope let you goobers use computers now? You all seem like the kind of people more comfortable at a bookburning than at an Ivy League University. Then again, I guess the Pope knows something about that, doesn’t he?
I’ll take filthy modernity over Catholic Dark Ages any day of the week.
March 21st, 2007 at 4:17 pm
The reason all these humorless complaints have suddenly appeared here is that Stephen at “For God, For Country, and for Yale” posted a screed against it.
The best part is that he explicitly encourages people to come here and complain without looking at the pictures. He provides a link directly to the comments so that his readers can avoid upsetting their delicate sensibilities.
So, my question is to the coming hordes of complainers: have you actually looked at these photographs? Do you know of what you complain?
March 21st, 2007 at 4:50 pm
There are many Catholics at Ivy League Universities- it is estimated that Yale is 20%+ Catholic.
Most of the Ivies have vigorous Catholic Pro-life groups.
Harvard has an active Opus Dei group.
Princeton’s Catholic ministry is well known.
Cornell: http://cornellsociety.org/
Keep the typical Catholic bashing to yourself.
March 21st, 2007 at 5:30 pm
Harvard professor Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. once observed that prejudice against the Catholic Church was “the deepest bias in the history of the American people.”
Yale professor Peter Viereck commented that “Catholic baiting is the anti-Semitism of the liberals.”
March 21st, 2007 at 7:05 pm
jesus, man, do you even read what you write? Someone took a photo you don’t care for, you whose opinion no asked for or cared about in the first place, and suddenly that’s on a level with anti-Semitism? Anti-Semitism was more like when the Spanish Inquisition tortured suspected Jews to death. How do find time to maintain that blog anyway? Shouldn’t you be misleading Africans about condoms or something?
March 21st, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Dear Dear Killjoys
I will give you the benefit of the doubt, that your (assumed) Ivy League education has neglected to inform you that the Dark Ages is the name given to the period in which the light of civilization was nearly extinguished in Europe, not by the Church but by the pagan barbarians who sacked Rome and trashed much of western Europe. I say nearly, because it was none other than the Church which kept that light burning until the Middle Ages. While it isn’t really my business, I would recommend that you study your subject prior to pontificating on it.
March 21st, 2007 at 9:22 pm
Dear Jacob,
Yes, I have looked at the pics before complaining! And it is still nothing more than immature trash from a frat party.
I also believe that the blog you refer to allows you to view as well.
March 21st, 2007 at 10:26 pm
Cornell Catholic Alumna says:
“I actually can can make intelligent critiques”
…yes she can can can!
March 22nd, 2007 at 6:18 pm
Brad Wilson is a filthy mess. I hope he moves to Hollywood; they’ll take any trash.
March 23rd, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Dearest of Cornell Alumna,
Kennedy Toole=American≠English. I suggest you visit “B&N” (that’s “Barnes and Noble” for the uninitiated) to get a clue.
Thank you.
March 24th, 2007 at 2:06 am
somebody tell Cornell alumna to stop taking herself so seriously. so you remember some Latin grammar and can Google the name of a character from a novel. if you’re so terribly “educated” then how come you believe in fairy tales from book that’s thousands of years old? idiot. p.s. (that’s “post script”…MORE LATIN! YAY!) I went to prep school so that I wouldn’t have to go to Cornell with people like you.
March 24th, 2007 at 5:17 am
is that the girl in the angel outfit is hot, any chance i could get her number somehow?
March 24th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
It’s really quite ignorant, the Catholic bashing going on here. A person who simply states the obvious truth, that these pictures are disrespectful (if not more than disrespectful) to these good people (saints) who lived good lives. Who followed truth, goodness, etc, why are you bashing those who follow truth?
Why are you not open-minded to the view that perhaps there is some greater power, or dare I say it truth?
I highly doubt that you would enjoy seeing these above images, but instead of the subject being saints, the subjects were your parents. If your parents where the models in the above images I think that you would be extremely upset and disturbed. Well know you know how I and others feel.
March 24th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Are you kidding? My mom would be HOT in that angel outfit.
March 24th, 2007 at 11:58 pm
Elizabeth, you may want to take an epistemology class, because I do not see any obvious truth. Why are you not open minded to the view that perhaps there is no greater power? It’s a two-way street, babe.
March 25th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
My ass suffered much for this art, and to Gaea’s mom, she did eventually drop the habit, yet I still carry with me the rosary beads…
March 28th, 2007 at 12:10 am
Please stop, for the love of God. As other posts have mentioned, these foul pictures really do injure people.
March 28th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Then stop printing them out and sliding them under your fingernails! Sheesh.
March 28th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Feh, martyrs these days!
April 1st, 2007 at 2:13 pm
I’m Catholic, more lapsed than practical but I haven’t been excommunicated yet. And I’m not offended, nor would I be if I still went to confession and mass weekly. I see Wilson’s work as interpretive, not necessarily incendiary and certainly not blasphemous. Art can challenge our views and inspire debate. This work does that. And I think I know the naked chick — so God, if you’re up there reading and thinking of passing judgment, spare her.
May 19th, 2007 at 1:28 am
maximum comedy.
August 2nd, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Are u a jew hater too?
August 2nd, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Are u a jew hater too?
August 2nd, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Are u a jew hater too?
January 27th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
great stuff, great message
February 15th, 2008 at 10:38 am
I like you
February 15th, 2008 at 10:42 am
I like you
March 12th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
that one ethan boy is prettyyyy.
so is cupid.
goddamn, they pretty much rallied together all the attractive or semi-attractive risley kids to be in this. i commend that great effort.
March 12th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
that one ethan boy is prettyyyy.
so is cupid.
goddamn, they pretty much rallied together all the attractive or semi-attractive risley kids to be in this. i commend that great effort.