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Gallery Owner Attacked for Iraq Abuse Art
By LISA LEFF

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A San Francisco gallery owner bears a painful reminder of the nation's unresolved anguish over the incidents at the Abu Ghraib prison - a black eye delivered by an unknown assailant who apparently objected to a painting that depicts U.S. soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners.

The assault outside the Capobianco gallery in the city's North Beach district Thursday night was the worst in a string of verbal and physical attacks directed at Lori Haigh since the artwork was installed at her gallery on May 16.

San Francisco police are investigating and have stepped up patrols around the gallery. But Haigh decided to close the gallery indefinitely, citing concern for the safety of her two children, ages 14 and 4, who often accompanied her to work.

Guy Colwell's painting, titled ``Abuse,'' depicts three U.S. soldiers leering at a group of naked men in hoods with wires connected to their bodies. The one in the foreground has a blood-spattered American flag patch on his uniform. In the background, a soldier in sunglasses guards a blindfolded woman.


The painting was part of a show of the Berkeley artist's work that mostly featured pastel-colored abstracts.


Colwell stopped by the gallery Friday, but refused to discuss his work or the reaction to it, saying only, ``I'm sorry if this is putting pressure on Lori.''


Two days after the painting went up in a front window, someone threw eggs and dumped trash on the doorstep. Haigh said she did not think to connect it to the events at Baghdad's notorious prison until people started leaving nasty messages and threats on her business answering machine.


``I think you need to get your gallery out of this neighborhood before you get hurt,'' one caller said.


She removed the painting from the window, but the gallery's troubles received news coverage and the criticism continued. The answering machine recorded new calls from people accusing her of being a coward for moving the artwork.


Last weekend, Haigh said a man walked into the gallery, pretended to scrutinize the painting for a moment, then marched up to her desk and spat in her face.


On Thursday, someone knocked on the door of the gallery, then punched Haigh in the face when she stepped outside.


``This isn't art-politics central here at all,'' Haigh said. ``I'm not here to make a stand. I never set out to be a crusader or a political activist.''


In closing the gallery, Haigh was forced to cancel an upcoming show featuring counterculture artist Winston Smith.


For Haigh, who opened Capobianco a year and a half ago, having the chance to work with prominent artists fulfilled a lifelong dream.


``I kept thinking someday I'll have enough of a reputation where I could bring in my heroes of the art world, people like Guy Colwell especially,'' she said.


Haigh has received some expressions of support since closing the gallery. Her favorite: an e-mail whose writer said, ``I'm sure that a few and dangerous minds don't understand that they have only mimicked the same perversity this painting had expressed.''



05/30/04 03:53


© Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained In this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.


I'm having a difficult time trying to figure out what the attackers are supporting. Are they supporting the abuse of prisoners protected under treaty, Taliban-style art bans, a Bush-explained, Al Qaeda hatred of our Constitutionally-protected freedoms, or just abuse against women? At any rate, too bad Kali, and San Fran in particular, are too socialist so she can't use her 2nd Ammend rights and blow those Mo-Fos away in defense of self, family, property, and liberty.

Wait, it's better with the link. So pissed I forgot to post it...
http://entertainment.earthlink.net/chan ... RUO0_story

I don't just think outside the box...I turn it inside out with my mind.

Edited by - Horrido on May 30 2004 09:22 AM

Edited by - Horrido on Jun 01 2004 12:55 PM

Okay, now that the correct link has been posted. lol


I don't just think outside the box...I turn it inside out with my mind.

What do you want us to say?

That we feel sorry for the socailist swine?

Don't hold your breath Evan.

While i don't condone punching women in the face, i do not consider that garbage 'art'. In her own words she 'admired' the guy.

It is also very telling that even in Berkeley this work was so offensive to the locals that she got clocked.

"O stranger passing by,
go tell the Lacedaemonians that here,
faithful to their bidding, we lie"

Epitath of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote><font size=1 face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>A San Francisco gallery owner bears a painful reminder of the nation's unresolved anguish over the incidents at the Abu Ghraib prison <hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size=2 id=quote> Anguish? I don't feel any anguish, I'm just pissed that those idiots got caught being stupid... 1st rule of doing something that is against the rules... DON'T GET CAUGHT

You look as lost as a bastard child on Fathers day.

_________________
\"One of you is gonna fall and die, and I'm not cleaning it up\"

One, don't give credence to "socialist swine" by commiting crimes against them, it only strengthens their cause. Ignore them, vote against them, and deny them funds.

Two, about the only time I hold my breath outside of foul air or under water is before I squeeze the trigger.

Has anyone here actually <i>seen</i> the work to determine how offensive or what kind of garbage it supposedly is? Who cares who considers what to be art? With that rationale, why don't we let the religious-right have their jollies with the porn industry? I'm sure they don't consider that "art," either.

I'm not terribly concerned with the assault or her well-being, I'm just curious about the reasoning or rationale for the attack. I'm concerned about the <i>principle</i> of the thing, disassociated from the who and the where. Who was she or the artist hurting? NO ONE! It strikes me as being completely counter-productive, simply because it <i>mirrors</i> the very behaviors we are supposedly trying to stamp-out in Afghanistan and Iraq.

As for being caught doing something against the rules, does this kind of attitude not reflect just paying lip-service to the concepts of "honor" and "integrity?" I'm not pissed that they got caught, I'm pissed that they were doing it in the first place! And if they "just wanted photos to 'demoralize' interrogation subjects," why not just ask/order US service personel of Arab/hispanic/whatever appropriate skin tone descent to strip, dawn a leash, stack up on each other, and pose?

Is it <i>wrong</i> to speak out against criminal and dishonorable behavior, or is a double-standard what we're striving for?


I don't just think outside the box...I turn it inside out with my mind.

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote><font size=1 face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>
Anguish? I don't feel any anguish, I'm just pissed that those idiots got caught being stupid... 1st rule of doing something that is against the rules... DON'T GET CAUGHT

<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size=2 id=quote>


I'm conflicted, but currently in sync with Stinger. Interrogators have to have large latitude in which to work. The interrogated prisoner can not know how far we will go, or when we will stop. If the limit is published knowledge, it is to their advantage to accelerate the process. The faster they get to the known limit the better, wherever the limit is. After the limit is reached it's the certain end of suffering. How far we will go should be variable. The limit should be determined by the importance of the information and the hardened criminality of the prisoner. I don't hear anything from the bleeding hearts on how ethical or moral it is to coddle a criminal that knows when and where the next bomb is going to kill 100 civilians. I'm sure all of us do not want to see this sausage being made, even as we know the necessity of it. The interrogators are taking a big chance that any significant action they take will be construed as torture by someone with a political agenda. They are on their own to make the important decison to move on, and the "secretary will disavow any knowledge of thier actions". If they get caught, they are the criminals, not the swine they are interrogating. And yes, they could be wrong sometimes. Talk about a thankless and dangerous job. If pain and suffering, including psychological pain, is not allowed, we will not persuade any hardened criminal to talk. The prisoners have to be convinced that they are beyond hope in a place with no boundaries to behavior. No one ever discusses this dilemma. They are too concerned about giving U.S. constitutional rights to indiscriminant murderers of the innocent, even as they plot to murder us all. One thing I'm sure of, it is not good to tell the terrorist world that our interrogators are limited to denying internet priviledges to the murderers. That won't get them to talk or deter bad behavior in the first place. It would be better to circulate the rumor that Americans torture painfully unto lingering death. Maybe everybody would give up the information immediately, believing that. Then we would not need serious persuasive techniques, but would be blamed for them anyway. You could go nuts trying to figure this out.

_________________
????

Stress, i pretty well agree with all that.

Horrido, i understand your point completely, but i believe there are exceptions.

I can tell you that if i saw some guy burning a flag in front of me i'd punch him right in the mouth, whether it's legal or not.

You know me dude, you know i would.

Now is this right or wrong? I don't know, but i'd still do it.

PS- the 'art' can be seen over the gallery owners shoulder in the pic in the link.

"O stranger passing by,
go tell the Lacedaemonians that here,
faithful to their bidding, we lie"

Epitath of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae

Yeah, I see you, too. Like Bob Hope once said,"I don't mind anybody burning the American flag...just as long as they're wearing it."

During Desert Storm, I was glad to see protesters on the state capital campus...

I was even more glad to watch a lone state trooper in riot gear, when one of the riot pukes was screaming in his face, stand there calmly without reaction or loss of temper, look discretely around...

and KO the guy by head-butting the rioter in the bridge of his nose with the bridge of his Fritz.

You barely even saw the stater move, and the rioter was just rag-dolled to the ground.

I'll never forget his wink in response to my grin. <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>

I don't just think outside the box...I turn it inside out with my mind.

Edited by - Horrido on Jun 01 2004 9:05 PM

So then obviously you agree, it's a grey area.

"O stranger passing by,
go tell the Lacedaemonians that here,
faithful to their bidding, we lie"

Epitath of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae