Space Invaders/Sept. 11 art exhibit stirs controversy [update]

Well, it's supposed to evoke emotions in the viewer. Being controversial just seems to be the easiest way to do that.

And believe him^ about controversy, he's the man with a bound nude Peach as his avatar.

This is controversy for the sake of controversy and absolutely nothing else. I appreciate art when the idea behind the art isn't awful, but come on. Fucking tower jumpers? I ain't gonna say it ain't art but it sure as hell ain't tasteful, or any good for that matter. The artist's explanation made me laugh... supposed to be a commentary regarding the current war strategy? Bullshit, it's just something the dude made to get his name out there.

This is disrespectful. This is tasteless. His explanation was lose through and through. Fuck this 'art', fuck this dude.

I have no problem saying that this isn't art. This is a promotional stunt, and it's not going to work.

This guy will be a starving "artist" for the rest of his days.

“Well, it's supposed to evoke emotions in the viewer”.

Then if I paint myself flipping the bird I'm an artist? Woah I'm glad I never visit modern art museums (If that garbage is considered art, the last time I visited a modern museum of arts the pieces there were pretty damn bad I mean what a waste of paint and Metal)

I don't even think it's controversial. Ever since "Operation Desert Storm" there have been hundreds of articles about how war and killing are becoming too abstracted, too much like a video game.

And of course, the piece also plays at the absolute good / evil rhetoric that surrounded 9/11.

Kisses *muah* XOXOXOXOXO

Love,
Karl Marx

Interesting that his hair is both blond and brunette, so as to include all of the white people (except redheads?)

A French!!! HOW DARE THEY!!

As someone from somewhere other than NY, I'm really sick of people using "I'm from NY" as an attempt to lend credibility to their opinions.

Go be a bigot somewhere else please.

i dont think he's being a bigot so much as he's upset that someone who isnt even from America mocking, as he sees it, a terrible tragedy.

The guy's hardly mocking 9/11. He's not making his point very well, but he does have one about US foreign policy.

@ Haggard

Of course he isn't mocking 9/11. That was airplanes and this is space invaders. And he googled "building" and the first one happened to be the World Trade Center.

And you know, 9/11 was a good example of US foreign policy. Let's see... US soil, attack without cause, suicide bombers, kill thousands of innocent people. Yeah, that seems to be the US's fault. Damn that foreign policy.

/end sarcasm

/start political rant

Fuck you liberals who think that the US foreign policy is horrible. I think it was totally justified that we went after Al-Qaeda. We went into Afghanistan looking for Osama, intel wrongly said he might be in Iraq, along with WMDs. Saddam wouldn't let the UN check for WMDs. US, along with several other countries, invades Iraq. Saddam... well you know what happened with him. Now they're in the middle of a civil war and the US is trying to be a (somewhat-biased) middle man. Flame me all you want, but thank God I live in America and I believe whatever the fuck I want.

/end political rant

AT nsdcx:

You're a complete utter fool. Even if you are in support of going after Al Qaeda(Even most Democrats were) the way it was handled was atrocious.

We could have had OSAMA. Seriously! Wait, we wanted to Afghani rebels(lol) to capture him as to decrease chances of American casualties. Too bad they cut him a deal where he had 3 days to leave. After that we went after Iraq which the British, a country that has pretty good history of ruling shit(besides India and of course the country I just mentioned) couldn't fucking control. It was an awful idea.

Let us go back a little more and back to Afghanistan. All their weapons, their training, their training facilities are what we supplied them with to fight the Russians. We sure didn't care when it was them being attacked! Especially since we were supplying the good times!

I could also mention the massive amounts of money being made in Iraq by people in power but I'll keep those "crazy" liberal views to myself.

The point is that these people just want to be left a fucking lone. And I don't blame them. If Britain didn't think it'd be a great fucking idea to combine three groups of people that hate each other, everything for the most part would be peaches and cream(except Israel but that's another issue). We gave these people the power to defend themselves and now they are. Our best bet is to leave. You really can't be a middle man to groups of people that won't budge on their personal beliefs. You should check out the book Ghost Wars. It's a great balanced view of the war and the history behind it.

And here in lies the problem with this country. Neo-Cons(I don't want to throw in my level headed different opinion, but reasonable conservatives in with the disastrous Bush Administration) are now lashing out at "liberals" because they're all confused. We were wrong. And no one wants to admit it.


As for this sad excuse for art, it sucks. It's tasteless and it completely sucks. It's not doing anything other than trying to be "edgy" and "thought provoking". Sorry french guy, you can get back to making my sandwich now.

Katrina was also one of Mario's fireballs.

The internet is a cruel mistress.

That I have to see.

In regards to this particular piece, I'm not typically one for political correctness and it's not "terrible" because no damage is being done to the buildings, it's still quite distasteful.

I live in New York and that day was devastating, and though I despise the way the Bush administration has used it as a scapegoat in order to evoke fear in the country and push a more personal political agenda in the middle east waged under false pretenses at the wrong enemy, doing the 9/11 thing still isn't kosher.

I'd like to see him make fun of warsaw.

Ok the new reply system is definitely worse.

It's offensive because the man is using it in a ridiculous way, it's not merely commenting on an event, it's a man taking advantage of a horrific event that he knows would offend the people most effected by it, just so he can be recognized by the media, and it's working isn't it? I saw this on the news too. Btw, being reminded of 9/11 isn't offensive, imo, but this game isn't paying respect to the victims, it isn't saying "we will never forget", it isn't being respectful whatsoever, i mean look, the towers even have what seems to be health...

If you're implying that the artist is using controversy to garner attention or further his own name, it'd be interesting to note that no news report I've seen has mentioned him/her at all.

I fail to see what's so ridiculous.

He hasn't in any way devalued the tragedy or the victims, but merely pointed out a societal spin on it which in and of itself should be so offensive. We need to get over following every mention of death with "and I'm sorry that it happened, because they were very good people, and it was a terrible event, and let us bow our heads in respect, and also have a fundraiser, and the only reason I did this was as a tribute to lost life."

"it's a man taking advantage of a horrific event"

kind of like what george bush does...

You've got to be kidding. The artist claims it's a commentary on Bush and the US war strategy, but where the hell do you get that out of this? It's a blatant attempt to stir up controversy for sake of the attention and nothing more. You have to be pretty damn dense to not see that.

I can't believe people are honestly missing what this is supposed to mean. I'll give you a hint: aliens.

I don't necessarily agree with the political statement, but saying that there isn't one is being blinded by opinion.

lol zmog, oh and @yourself, i'm just going to stop, you obviously don't understand, all i'll say is let's put this work of art up at the metropolitan museum of art, it's so beautiful! Leonardo DaVinci? Picasso? Michaelangelo? who the hell are they? This guy is a real artist.

And, again, how does that relate to Bush or the war strategy? This piece of "art" comes no where near to providing the commentary the "artist" claims it does. And including building jumpers? Are you fucking kidding me? How can that be seen as anything other than controversy for the sake of controversy?

My reply to Vidikron and ice is somewhere down below. The reply system is having a horrendous time today, and I really don't feel like dealing with it anymore. This issue is so straightforward and simple that I can't see what else there is to say, though. "Space invaders" destroyed the WTC, right?

The point you seem to missing or simply ignoring is that the artist claims this is a commentary on the war strategy and Bush. You explanations below having absolutely nothing to do with either of those. And, again, if the this guy wasn't simply in it for the controversy why bother including building jumpers?

Hast du den neuen Slogan von American Airlines gehoert? "Wir fliegen Sie direkt ins Büro"

343,

Kerl, es wird völlig in Verwirrung gebracht.

"mocking people who died at pearl harbor back int he 50's"

What's wrong with that? I mean, Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941. I feel I have every right to mock someone who died there in the 1950's because they were over a decade too late getting in on the action and clearly an idiot. Besides which, I thought that once Hollywood had taken a historical event and made a ridiculous movie out of it, it was fair game.

Eh what is his idea anyway? Seriously.

The Space Invaders exhibit, okay I see the space invaders and I see the WTC now did I miss that game where you defend NY from the space invaders? Aren’t Vidjea games supposed to be fun I mean this is out of context, who knows why he did it If you ask me he did it to call attention and guess what it worked.

Also if they were attacking the white house now that would have made sense.


Give that man his “Attention whore” badge and move on.

Now I feel silly woah after watching the video that was actually pretty cool I mean not the 9 11 but you know using your hands to shoot was cool.

Too bad he used a bad setting.

I don't think it's really a matter of being "too soon" or that it shouldn't be discussed. Because, your right, there has been plenty of discussion about the event in all sorts of media. I think the debate is more about the actually presentation. IMO, it's highly tasteless and doesn't come anywhere near making the commentary the "artist" claims it does. I mean, building jumpers!? Seriously?