art with dead bodies

what do you think about this?

peter witkin creates photographs from the assembled parts of corpses and precariously posed dead bodies. They are very elaborate set-ups. When I was in art school, his work caused heated debates about morality and the concept of art. What is art?

do you think this is?

http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/witkin/jpwdefault.html

This isn't a question abot what art is, it is more of a question about ethics.

I agree branh...

I am curious to know if people think that what he is doing is ethical...and if not- why?

I have not fully resolved my own feelings on the matter and am open to what other people have to say...

interesting...

actually, I believe he got many of his corpses from poor countries and also bought them from morgue workers who would sell someone elses body for cash without batting an eyelash...he had to go out-of-country to get his bodies specifically BECAUSE you can't just go buy them downtown.

It is my understanding that most of his bodies, nor their relatives, did NOT give consent

Message posted by: Dancing Bread on 5/21/2006 7:14:42 AM ip: xxx.xxx.xxx.204
We think this is disrespectful because we see the body and realize that he or she did not chose to do this. The bodies are being used by the gain of another. And why would we do something like this to another human being.

I find this is purely emotional issue. Some countries celebrate a loved ones death, b/c they believe he or she is in a better place. And they treat the body with respect b/c of their emotional connection to it. You still mourn for the person that occupied the body. A person knows in their gut that the loved one is gone, but that doesn't stop the person from having an emotional connection with the body. Yet, when you look at the body, you feel the coldness of it. It gives you the realization that life is short, and that one day you will be in the same position...maybe 40 years from now...maybe tomorrow...maybe today.

^^^okay, this is why I post questions like this around here...because of people like -_-

- the thoughtful comments make it all worth while...so thank you also agua, lusty and bling...even branh. However, I am still unsettled, and rather torn between two seemingly opposing thoughts on the matter- perhaps I just need to see that it is okay for me to hold different contradicting opinions regarding the same issue. Maybe I don't need to have all of my view points in line with one another- would it really be so bad if they were not?

anyway...what kept you up all night db?

-_- )))sleepless in the west
o_O)))sleepless in the east

o_O

hi -_- and +_+

I feel so lost without a cafe

like there is no "home" for us...

we need to get a new clubhouse...you know- for our "secret" meetings and such 😉

I agree with everything DB said about bodies... it is how I view the ones who have passed.

To keep it short, I think it's unethical. But it's also ART... whatever it is, be it unethical or dark, disrespectful or disturbing... it's an expression of the artist himself.

Ah well someones gotta do it. I personally would LOVE to see an exhibition like that in person... it would be awesome, what death left behind... I am extremely fascinated by things like these... FASCINATED!

Art knows no ethics... it's ART... an expression...

deja vu deja vu... there me goes again lol

They do things I wouldn't do... so glad they don't have ethics lol

Yup the subject is broad. Definitely overrated sometimes.

As basic as it gets... the only way to judge whether something is unethical or not is, majority. If no one thought that (this) for example, was unethical, then it wouldn't be because everyone would be ok with it. And if the thing to do was digging up bodies, then that'd be normal. I just think, personally, that somethings you just gotta get around 'majority' to bring something new or different (whatever it may be) Anything and everything can become an obstacle, even ethics. Art or science... of course one might be of more importance or significance than the other...