Are Lice Art?

Posted by Alex in Animal, Arts & Crafts on April 30, 2008 at 11:26 am


Are lice art? A group of young artists from Berlin think so – and they’re willing to go the distance to prove it: by living in an Israeli museum for three weeks with lice in their hair!

"The idea is that we live in the museum as their guests, and at the same time we are hosting lice on our heads," said artist Vincent Grunwald, 23, wearing a plastic shower cap to prevent the lice from spreading. [...]

"Art is no longer just a painting on the wall," Milana Gitzin-Adiram, chief curator of the Museum of Bat Yam near Tel Aviv, told Reuters. "Art is life, life is art."

The exhibition has caused controversy — unintended, the artists say — in a country where the mention of lice may revive memories of Nazi propaganda that described Jews as "parasites."

The artists, who sleep, eat and bathe in the gallery, said the exhibition toyed with ideas about hosts and guests in line with a theme set by the museum and aimed to blur the boundaries between art and reality.

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19 comments to "Are Lice Art?"

  1. Mark
    April 30th, 2008 at 11:40 am

    Yuck! Just having lice in your hair is not art to me. There is not beauty, message, etc that would make it art. It's just lice. More of an experiment that artistry I think.

  2. L
    April 30th, 2008 at 11:44 am

    That's nasty. And where does it stop? Are we going to hear about someone who infected himself with HIV as "art"?

    These people are just dumb.

  3. fsmarch
    April 30th, 2008 at 11:56 am

    Those people are sick!

  4. DrJones
    April 30th, 2008 at 12:06 pm

    Oh modern art, do you even understand yourself?

  5. matt
    April 30th, 2008 at 12:17 pm

    Q: Are Lice Art?
    A: No.

  6. Retrokatze
    April 30th, 2008 at 1:08 pm

    Nowadays, Art seems to be synonymous with Stupidity...

  7. Retrokatze
    April 30th, 2008 at 1:09 pm

    Oh yeah, and with the "artist's" reasoning, every kindergarden is an art show.

  8. Ali S.
    April 30th, 2008 at 2:57 pm

    Ugh. When did Art become so stupid? :(

  9. Rich
    April 30th, 2008 at 3:23 pm

    Then personal hygiene and common-sense must be très banal.

  10. OddNumber
    April 30th, 2008 at 4:33 pm

    Not just lame. Super lame.

    These guys must have lost a bet to be doing this because it makes no sense!!!

  11. tigergal39
    April 30th, 2008 at 8:52 pm

    Lice are disgusting. If they let this go as long as they want to, there are health problems that could go along with the lice. EWWWW.

  12. Arty
    April 30th, 2008 at 9:24 pm

    I'm a fine arts major and nowadays, the concept of what is art is stretched more and more to the point where I have to scratch my head and wonder, is that really art?

    "art is life, life is art," how I wonder...

  13. fsmarch
    April 30th, 2008 at 9:53 pm

    Next they'll be calling the skid marks in their underwear art.

  14. Dave
    April 30th, 2008 at 11:37 pm

    Not very bright, and definitely not art.

  15. Terry
    May 1st, 2008 at 12:07 am

    Is it art? It all depends on the categorisations system you use. I can see how some can legitimately claim lice in ones hair as art.

    fsmarch
    I reckon if you had a pair of Salvidor Dali's undies with a skid mark, you'd promote them as valuable art, I would.
    PS: It's a nice idea BTW. LOL

  16. ted
    May 1st, 2008 at 7:29 am

    Arty, if you have to scratch your head, maybe you've got some lice in there - time for an art show!

    You wouldn't promote Salvador Dali's underwear as art - it's more in the memorabilia category. I'm sure if Dali could find someone stupid enough to buy it, he would have sold it. I wonder if Dali even wore underwear...? I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't.

  17. graffiksguru
    May 1st, 2008 at 11:02 am

    @ matt: Seconded
    @ arty: I was a fine arts major too, and there were always people pushing the envelope of what was called art, but no one ever tried something this dumb. I'm sorry but, having living lice on your head is not art. I had a hard enough time accepting "Jack the Dripper" Jackson Pollock as an artist when I was in school.

  18. Lea
    May 1st, 2008 at 7:04 pm

    So everytime they checked us for lice in elementary school...they were quashing a potential creative outlet?

    Ew.

    At fsmarch: I'm pretty sure they have.

  19. Gaby
    May 3rd, 2008 at 3:37 pm

    Yeah the definition of art has broadened in more recent years and it's all good and dandy unless it hurts or causes distress to unwillingly participants, such as the guy who let a dog die from starvation in an art gallery. Ad it's all good because art is all about communication and if human communication develops along with us as human beings then it's just natural that art does too.

    Oh man.


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