No Nudes is Good Nudes: Norwegian Censors
By Rob Maguire, March 15, 2007 Comments (8)
No butt cheek was left uncovered, no phallus unsheathed. Norwegians awoke today to find that a midnight marauder had censored the sculptures scattered through Oslo's Vigeland Sculpture Park. With the exception of one lone figure, every scrap of nipple, crotch or posterior was covered with black strips of paper, no matter the size nor position of the statue.
The unknown assailant left an explanatory note behind: "There is too much nudity in newspapers and magazines, so here on the bridge the limit has been reached!"
Some background on the sculptures from Wikipedia:
Probably the most famous park in Norway, it was created by sculptor Gustav Vigeland between the years 1907 and 1942. Most of the sculptures date from the years 1926 to 1942.
The park has as its theme what could be called the "Human Condition." Most of the statues depict people engaging in various typically human persuits, such as running, wrestling, dancing, hugging, holding hands and so on. However, Vigeland occasionally included some statues that are more abstract, and to some degree defy understanding
Back in the day, there was a Mapplethorpe exhibit at the art museum in Cincinnati. I was living in Columbus at the time. There was a huge flap over the exhibit. The D.A. busted the museum for "pandering obscenity." They even tried to seize the photos. My smart-ass quiz at the time was, "Q: Why is the Catholic Church opposed to the Mapplethorpe exhibit? A: You can't see it, but there's a condom on the fist."
Now a lot of the objection to the exhibit had to do with race and homophobia. But people were much more comfortable complaining about child pornography. There were (I think) two photos of nude children. I could not see anything sexual or suggestive about these portraits, and certainly there was no sexual activity in them.
But - and here's the fun - half a block away, there was a 200 year old bronze fountain with a bare breasetd woman and a young naked child. Not to mention naked youths riding dolphins sitting - I might add - directly over the dolphin's blow hole!
My way was clear. I made a bikini top for the woman and a diaper for the boy.
I got busted for it. The story went all over the country. Strangers sent money to cover my fine. A colleague heard about it on television in Poland! I was utterly insufferable for a week!
Maybe the assailant should move to america
This turned out to be a student prank from publicity-seeking students at Westerdals School of Communication. English name and all, but I'm still not able to find any information on the web site in any other language than Norwegian (www.westerdals.no).
Students from this school do such things every now and then, and the common public usually find their antics to be in bad taste.
Does anybody know if John Ashcroft has been sighted in Norway?
If public nudity like that was okay, we would be born nude!
I love Nudity L O L
I streak frequently all around my village, everyone loves it, thank god for America < Bush 3
ak076520557
I was lucky enough to visit Oslo last year - pics of Vigeland Park - so beautiful.
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