Spanish artist Santiago Sierra planned to immerse the British Union Jack flag “in the blood of its colonized territories”, according to the call for donations earlier this month.
“We apologize to all the people of the First Nations for any harm done. We are sorry.”
CNN contacted Sierra for comment.
The project was ‘open to peoples of the Nations from countries claimed at some point in history by the British Empire, living in Australia’, according to a call for donations posted on Facebook on 19 March.
The artist Santiago Sierra is no stranger to controversy over his works. Credit: Ballesteros / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
Those who volunteered were asked to donate a ‘small amount of blood’ to the artwork.
The project was quickly criticized on several platforms.
Kira Puru, an Australian musician of Maori descent, commented on Dark Mofo’s initial Instagram post: “What a way to reveal that there are no First Nations people on your curatorial / consulting teams,” he said: “White people continue to exploit the literal blood of the First Nations people.”
The Noongar are native Australian people living in southwestern Australia.
“Asking the First Nations people to donate blood to soak up a flag recreates, not criticizes, the horrific conditions of colonization,” Lynch wrote.
‘It calls on a community on whose blood this Australian colony is built, a community that is younger, sicker and more marginalized as a result of structural racism than anyone else, to give even more blood to give no explanation for returning give or correct not wrongs. “
Lynch stressed that donors are not offered payment, nor are Dark Mofo’s donations to indigenous organizations.
CNN contacted Lynch for further comment.
“Self-expression is a fundamental human right, and we support artists to create and present work regardless of their nationality or cultural background,” the report reads.
The next day, however, the festival announced the cancellation of the project. The rest of the festival takes place as planned from June 16-22 in Hobart, Tasmania.
Sierra is known for works that embarrass the public, including the transformation of a former synagogue in Germany into a gas chamber and the payment of four women he described as ‘prostitutes’ addicted to heroin, around their backs in one to have horizontal line tattooed.
1/10 – Mother and child divided (1993), Damien Hirst
There are art prizes, and there is the Turner Prize, the enfant terrible awards for contemporary art.
The Turner Prize, established in 1984, is designed to promote the discussion of art in Britain by annually celebrating the best pieces by a British artist. Thirty years later, it is just as well known for its prestige as for unleashing debates with polarizing nominations. (Damien Hirst’s award-winning “Mother and Child (Divided)”, a cow and a calf cut in formaldehyde and emerged, was a tabloid newspaper.)
But the controversy surrounding certain works – whether nominated by Turner or not – says as much about the public as it does about the artists. Credit:
Oli Scarff / Getty Images