Controversial exhibit features suitcase bomb, American flag straightjacket

Exhibit Asks: When Is a Bomb Art?
Wednesday, September 14, 2005

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STORIES BACKGROUND
•Artist's Performance Offends 9/11 Families
NEW YORK — A controversial art exhibition in Manhattan has people asking: Can a weapon be art?

"A Knock at the Door" features stamps depicting a gun to President Bush's head, a straightjacket made from an American flag and what appears to be a suitcase bomb ( search). The artists have received mixed reviews from both the art police and the real police — a few have been questioned, detained and even charged with crimes related to their work.

Even those who support the exhibit have questions about some of its displays.

• Click in the video box to the right to watch a report by FOX News' Jamie Colby.

"What is provocative and what is safe and free?" asked Tom Healy, president of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council ( search). "I don't have the answer to that in these particular works. And it's not a surprise that authorities would be interested in some of these things. They're works that are pretty hard not to find offensive."

And that's the point of the exhibit — not to provide answers but to ask visitors to decide what is offensive and what is art.

Is a bomb art?


thoughts?