I don’t usually enter into the world of modern art. My sole qualification as an art critic is an oil painting by my mother hanging in the living room. Being one who deals with people all over the country via truck and laptop however, has allowed me to see Stupid in all of its various incarnations. Today I struck the mother lode.

We’ve all seen or heard of some of the more perverse forms of so-called art that go on display. Statues created from excrement, etc. But how’s about a woman who feels that she’s being artistic by lying around with a dead pig? That was a new one for me, and I’ve seen a lot.

British artist Kira O'Reilly’s current masterpiece, titled “Inthewrongplaceness” is essentially a peepshow. For a price, you can enter into a private room and watch Kira wallow naked with a dead pig for ten minutes. One viewer at a time. From all accounts, the pig isn’t just a prop. It’s a real pig. Dead.

This is one of those rare times when I’m in agreement with PETA. PETA released the following statement regarding Ms. O’Reilly:

"As Miss O'Reilly seems to have to depend on the shock value of using a murdered pig as a prop, perhaps lacking the talent to make it as a proper artist, may we suggest she take up a day job instead to pay the bills? Cruelty is not entertainment."

So… why would anyone wish to lie naked (or clothed) with a dead pig? Or a live one, for that matter? This isn’t art. This is a mental disorder. And no, don’t try to tell me that I lack the necessary sophistication to appreciate unusual art. This is the sort of stuff that high-brow lefties like to accuse us poor Southern hicks of doing. The woman is lying naked with a farm animal, okay? Bestiality and necrophilia all in one skinny little package.

If you require proof that Ms. O’Reilly is suffering from some form of dementia, I offer this little tidbit. It’s from the Tract Art Live website, which attributes the quote to her:

“The work left me with an undercurrent of pigginess, unexpected fantasies of mergence and interspecies metamorphoses began to flicker into my consciousness; making fiercely tender and ferocious identifications with the pig as stand in, double, twin, doll, imaginary self. Making fiercely tender and ferocious identifications with the pig as stand in, double, twin, doll, imaginary self.”

Someone close to Ms. O’Reilly should send for the Dudes In The White Suits to come and collect her, and take her to a nice safe place where she can recover. Padded walls come to mind. And no pets.

So, does our girl Kira kill a fresh pig for each exhibit, or does she keep one in the deep freeze and thaw it out in a really big microwave oven? Will she eventually eat the pig? Will she one day have an attack of guilty conscience over all those dead pigs? And if she does, will she start using live ones instead?

Frankly, these are questions of which I am afraid of the answers. Our world just keeps getting a little sicker each day. Call me a stuffy old right-winger, but this isn’t art. This is a sick ritual involving an innocent animal being sacrificed to the God of Human Depravity.

Art can take many forms, from paintings to music to woodworking and beyond. Sick displays of the nature of Ms. O’Reilly and her Dead Pig aren’t art. They’re a warning to all of us that the lines between acceptable and unacceptable conduct were drawn for a reason. Ms. O’Reilly is an example of what happens when those lines are not respected.

Related Reading:

Tract Live Art website with photo of Ms. O’Reilly and her pig

http://www.tract-liveart.co.uk/August.html

TCV article

http://www.theconservativevoice.com/ap/article.html?mi=D8JIVFPG0

Newlyn Art Gallery

http://www.newlynartgallery.co.uk/whatson/html/06081801.html

Excremental art
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1055980193705_222?hub=Entertainment

Alan Burkhart is a freelance writer, cross-country trucker, and proud citizen of the reddest of the Red States - Mississippi. You can reach him by visiting his website: www.alanburkhart.blogspot.com or by e-mail at alan@alanburkhart.com.