Brooka ([info]desolation_no) wrote,
2008-03-24 16:40:00
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Your dose of animal rights for the day...

"Artist" Adel Abessemed is having his show Don't Trust Me sponsored by the San Francisco Art Institute's Walter McBean Gallery. His videos show 6 animals (sheep, pig, ox, horse, goat, and baby deer) being killed by blows of a hammer. I researched this a little bit to make sure that the videos were not appropriated. They were, in fact, made by Abessemed himself, which means he either killed them himself or had these animals killed. I also looked into his other work to see what his general "viewpoint" is. It is decidedly deranged and antisocial.

My opinion: the email I sent to the Walter McBean Gallery:

"Art ends where sociopathy begins. The Adel Abessemed exhibit is a terrible infringement upon the lives of other beings for no purpose other than to feed the nihilistic cloud within which Abessemed works. These videos are not art. They are not in any way constructive. Even the ideas they inspire is hateful. Hate speech is not tolerated in this country, so why would hate art be? This is just the kind of thing that needs to be reduced from this world. Your sponsorship of this man is deleterious to your students and to society as a whole, and I suggest that you try to find Abessemed a therapist and a police escort as killing animals for pleasure is a trademark of a serial killer."

If you want to contact the gallery:

exhibitions@sfai.edu

415.749.4563

An article about the exhibit (warning to the image sensitive):

http://www.nonstarvingartists.com/News/adel-abdessemed-don1t-trust-me-opens-at-sfai

This is particularly poignant to me because as I was driving home from school I saw a tiny dog nearly get run over by the driver in front of me. The expression on its face was terrible, sos much so that I got out of my car and held it for a few minutes and got it away from the road, then found some neighborhood kids and asked them to find its owner.

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  • 9 comments

[info]sprightlyinside

March 24 2008, 21:06:37 UTC 4 years ago

Oh that "art" is absolutely nauseating! How can he get away with posing these videos as art? Pulled from the web page you posted: "Do these incidents represent slaughter or sacrifice?"
Sacrifice? To what end? Are we living in Biblical times now?!!??

This is just disgusting. My e-mail is on its way to the gallery. Thanks for posting this!!

[info]rikosis

March 24 2008, 21:31:12 UTC 4 years ago

Id send an e-mail to them but my spelling and grammer and intelligence are err dumb.

However thats rediculous, all he needs to do is start randomly setting things on fire and he sure is on his way to becoming a serial killer....
Asshole.

[info]hurrysundown

March 25 2008, 01:15:41 UTC 4 years ago

While I think that it's really hard to accomplish anything once you start accusations - 'cause, obviously, people get offended...I don't really think I need to say that I completely, utterly, and entirely agree with you. Now I just have to figure out how to say it so that I don't sound like I'm willing to take a hammer to HIM. Even though I am.

[info]desolation_no

March 25 2008, 02:26:14 UTC 4 years ago

I felt the bitterness was necessary. I tried not to lose my head and all substance in my email, but I wanted to make the point that in this country, we learn to tolerate and at least on a base level accept a lot of different viewpoints. There is a line though. A person's rights only go so far that they do not extinguish another's. Our tolerance of art (eeing as a lot of post-modern art is taking an increasingly social, cultural awareness route, often evoking controversy) should be the same. Something ceases to be art when it harms another being without consent. It is, at that point, merely sociopathy.

[info]hurrysundown

March 25 2008, 03:09:42 UTC 4 years ago

Understood. But in my own experiences, a lot less gets accomplished once the accusations raise defenses. So even though I feel passionately and angry about it - because let me tell you, I do. I'd love to beat that son of a bitch's head in with a mallet. - I'm trying to think of a way to say "Look, I don't think this is right. At all." that gets the point across without me sounding...well, like I'm a ranting tree hugger because I don't want to devalue my point through the assumptions people can and will make about me. This isn't really attached to what you've said - it's something that I've realised I really need to work on when talking to people about anything debate-like.

[info]desolation_no

March 25 2008, 02:26:56 UTC 4 years ago

And, in this case, I really wanted to offend those gallery owners. They KNEW this sort of reaction would come about from taking on a show like this, and they should be prepared to take it.

[info]sprightlyinside

March 25 2008, 23:37:56 UTC 4 years ago

Did you get a response from them yet? I did, and it's written in a very accusatory, snotty tone. I really don't appreciate it.
I also wrote to the Humane Society, but I'm not sure anything can be done about it at this point (since the clips were obviously taken earlier and it's not an ongoing thing as far as I can tell).

[info]desolation_no

March 26 2008, 14:08:21 UTC 4 years ago

Yes, I did. I was thinking about posting it here and in my vegan people community, or maybe responding to the email. I mean, I'm sure they'd just send it again, or block me, but whatever. There are several things really wrong with what that guy wrote.

[info]nada_brahma

March 26 2008, 04:42:52 UTC 4 years ago

stars of stage and tube

Brook we can be stars of stage and tube. You Raise valid points in a debate show format and I will continue with counter point. It will be a huge success because I am not Nick Allen.
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