Some local moms are outraged about a new multi-media exhibit — including curse words and what they say looks like BDSM images — that is front and center in the Great Hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Words like “f–k it” and “lick it” were projected on six large screens along with phrases like “This is the new world order” and “May you fill yourself with lust.” There are images of men who appear to be naked with their privates blurred out and men standing over other men who appear to be wearing dog collars. A mangled NYPD patrol car is seen at a junkyard with a burning school bus.
“I see a wasteland ‘Mad Max’ scenario with people dressed in S&M and other people who look like they’re fornicating with the earth,” said an Upper East Side mother who asked that only her first name, Jennifer, be used. “There is [images] two women with a cross with a skull in it, as if stabbing the earth. Many people with glowing eyes. It looks devilish and demonic to me. Imagine a child standing in line with their parents to get tickets for the Met. There is no way out of it … If anything it should be in a separate area with age requirements and parental guidance.”
The F-word is used several times in “A Metta Prayer,” a new multi-media exhibit in the Great Hall at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that has angered some mothers for what they see as inappropriate sexual and “demonic” imagery. . Dana Kennedy’s mothers interviewed by The Post complained that young children “couldn’t escape” the images in the “A Metta Prayer” exhibit displayed on the Met’s lobby wall. Dana Kennedy
Jennifer said she filed a formal complaint with the Met last week but has not heard back.
A spokeswoman for the Met — which is supported in part by taxpayer dollars — emailed a statement to The Post Tuesday.
“The Met supports artists’ rights to creative expression and freedom of speech,” a museum spokeswoman said in an email. “At a time when Black and LGBTQ+ communities face the constant threat of violence, Jacolby Satterwhite’s powerful project for The Met’s Great Hall creates a contemplative space that celebrates emotion, joy and resilience.”
“My daughters take an art class at the Met and last week they brought them into the lobby and I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Kate, a Manhattan mother of an 11-year-old girl, told The Post. “Here’s a group of about 15 kids between the ages of 8 and 12, and we’re walking up to this giant video screen with this very shocking and inappropriate material.”
“A Metta Prayer” is shown on six giant screens in the Great Hall of the Met.Stefano Giovannini for the NY Post Artist Jacolby Satterwhite told The Post that what some see as “BDSM” imagery was inspired by a gay wrestling collective called Chokehole. Kennedy Fund
The work is part of an ambitious exhibition, “A Metta Prayer,” by Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist Jacolby Satterwhite, 37, which was announced this month and runs through January.
It’s billed as a “multichannel video installation… based on a computer-generated landscape of an imagined New York City” and borrows from Titian, video games and many of the Met’s own artworks.
Satterwhite was inspired by the Buddha’s Metta prayer, the mantra of love, to construct a narrative that rebels against the conventions of commercial video games,” the Met said in its description of the commission. “Instead of sustaining violence, the characters in ‘A Metta Prayer’ dance, perform, preach and pose.”
Artist Jacolby Satterwhite says that “A Mette Prayer” is a life-affirming Buddhist work that depicts the dark and light that humans strive to keep in balance.Deonté Lee/BFA.com
But mothers who spoke to The Post said they don’t think it’s appropriate for children — and they don’t think “love” comes through what one of them called “devilish” images.
“I don’t think this is the institution we know and it’s not what we think of as a museum,” added Kate. “It’s supposed to be a center of culture and learning — for children too … It’s very disgusting to me. One person is holding someone by a chain and the person is on their knees crawling on the ground, so many strange things about the new world order. I don’t like children being exposed to this.”
Reached by The Post Tuesday, Satterwhite said his work is misconstrued if someone thinks of it as Satanic or overtly sexual.
Artist Jacolby Satterwhite says his work is misinterpreted if someone thinks it’s satanic or overtly sexual.Stefano Giovannini for the NY Post “Don’t take your kids to an af–king museum if you don’t want them to learn,” Satterwhite told The Post. Stefano Giovannini for the NY Post
One of the dancers in the video that makes up “A Metta Prayer” is O’Shae Sibley, 28, who was killed at a gas station in Coney Island in July. Sibley was popular with Beyonce’s song at the time. Satterwhite says part of “A Metta Prayer” is a tribute to him.
Satterwhite has been open about using BDSM imagery in previous work, such as the artwork and performances he did at parties for Grindr, the gay men’s dating app, where performers were dressed in leather and recreated the experience of gay cruising in 1980s Central Park.
“Chokehole” wrestlers take part in wacky, drag-wrestling types.Dana Kennedy The image of a discarded NYPD patrol car in what looks like an apocalyptic junkyard appears several times in “A Metta Prayer.”Dana Kennedy
But he said Tuesday that what mothers see as a BDSM image is actually an image of a “Chokehole” wrestler that Satterwhite, who is gay, describes as a kind of queer, drag wrestling.
“Do these moms mind if we show Hulk Hogan retro?” asked Satterwhite. “This is a freak wrestling collective. The paradox about them is that they are a strange community that loves each other and they bring people together. They imitate violence all under the guise of uniting people.”
Dancer O’Shae Sibley, who was killed while dancing in what authorities are calling a hate crime, is featured in the video. Sage O. Dumure Versailles/Facebook
Satterwhite has little patience for those who complain about his exhibition at the Met.
“They just see the darkness and weirdness that most people hate,” Satterwhite said. “The piece is based on the Buddhist prayer and the journey. It’s about two sides of you fighting to be a good person. Don’t take your kids to the af–king museum if you don’t want them to learn. Go to the Frick and see the flowers.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
