Deathrow Convict's Body to Be Used to Feed Fish (Art Project)

"Gene Hathorn, a convict on death row in Texas, has agreed to give his body to the Danish-based artist Marco Evaristti, should [Hathorn's] final appeal against execution fail. Evaristti plans to turn Hathorn’s body into a work of art. 'My aim is to . . . make fish food out of [Hathorn's body]. Visitors to my exhibition will be able to feed goldfish with it . . . .'

"Hathorn, 47, has been on death row since 1985, after being found guilty for the murder of his father, step-mother and step-brother. At an earlier trial Hathorn’s friend, James Lee Beathard, was also convicted for the murders after Hathorn testified against him. . . . Hathorn later recanted his testimony but Beathard, who protested his innocence to the end, was executed by lethal injection in 1999 because of a Texas law which prevents the presentation of new evidence after 30 days have passed from the original trial."

"Evaristti came to international attention in 2000 when he placed goldfish in electric blenders filled with water. Visitors to the exhibition at Denmark’s Trapholt Art Museum could choose to press a button, turn on the blenders and kill the fish."

Recent Work by Martha Rosler

Good article in The New York Times including an audio slide show.

Delvoye Work Banned from Shanghai Art Show,

. . . the SHContemporary. Wim Delvoye's work comprised a pen with several pigs tattooed with Walt Disney Co. characters and LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA motifs.

Per Delvoye, the sole reason for the banning was that the tattooed pigs were deemed "not art." "We have collectors who've traveled to China all the way from Europe to see the pigs. They're very disappointed." More here.


(Image of framed tattoo on pigskin from Sperone Westwater.)

Fortunately, Delvoye has also tattooed a human, Tim Steiner; this work, which included the rights to require Steiner to exhibit himself and to receive the tattooed skin after his death, was sold to a collector for nearly $215,000 (b.t.w., Steiner got a cut, so to speak.)

Steiner is being substituted for the pigs; apparently, a tattooed human IS art. More here.

Artists Shepard Fairey & Robert Indiana Jailed

In case you missed it, the artists were held for 17 hours in Denver during the Democratic National Convention on charges of putting up unauthorized posters. More details here; Fairey's website here.

(Mural by Fairey with installation by Nic and Z.)

Worthwhile Obit

. . . here. (Thanks, snarky!)

McCain Rushing Back to D.C. to Help with Economic Crisis???

(You can stop watching the first video at about 1:35 min., when it moves on to the subject of McCain's competency w.r.t. Iraq):



I'm so glad McCain's "suspended" his campaign and is trying to back out of the first debate so he can help cope with the crisis! Phil Gramm was key in pushing through the deregulation that led to the current financial meltdown. If my life savings weren't at stake, McCain & Co. would be hilarious.

Here's Barbara Boxer on his years of "experience" in dealing with our financial system (she gets to that subject after about the first minute in):



The Wall Street Journal reports, "Sen. Chris Dodd, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said Thursday that [the] bipartisan meeting with President Bush at the White House on the mortgage rescue plan was nothing short of a disaster. . . . 'I am not going to sign on to something I just saw this afternoon,' Dodd said . . . . [t]he whole meeting 'looked like a rescue plan for John McCain . . . .'"

Bloomberg reports, "Hundreds of Economists Urge Congress Not to Rush on Rescue Plan."

Here's my solution. We don't have to enact any new legislation that no one's had a chance to review. We simply repeal the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, the law enacted after the crash of 1929 that was carefully designed to protect against exactly this kind of meltdown and that worked just fine until the Republicons repealed it, and make it apply to all kinds of depositaries without exception.

P.S.: If you were somewhat surprised by the revelation that the Bush Admin had a financial "Patriot Act" all ready just sitting on the shelf waiting for an opportune meltdown, see this and this.

Please VOTE

All credit to Rolling Stone; please do go there, 'cause there's more good info, e.g. here and here.

E-Mail from a Nigerian Named Paulson . . .

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Tuesday, September 23, 2008 5:11 AM
From: XXXXX
To: XXXXX

Dear XXXXX:

I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.

I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of [XXX] billion USD. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.

I am working with Mr. Phil Gramm, lobbyist for UBS, who (God willing) will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a former U.S. congressional leader and the architect of the PALIN / McCain Financial Doctrine, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. As such, you can be assured that this transaction is 100% safe.

This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.

Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.

Yours Faithfully,

Minister of Treasury Paulson

(Thanks, All Spin Zone! {via Truth2Tell})