For this week, I would like you to look at Chapter 1 in But Is It Art? and the discussion of Andres Serrano’s “Piss Christ” which is analyzed and discussed in terms of its form, content, and context. For this assignment, I would like you to look at a similarly themed piece by the artist (produced a few years before) – Blood Cross – and try to make sense of it using ritual theory or aesthetic theory (a theory of beauty). Does either theory fit the work? If not, how do you make sense of it?
Please make sure to note Freeland’s definition of “theory” in the Introduction: “a framework for providing an orderly explanation of observed phenomena.”
A link to the image and a description can be found here: https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=1478104
