A United Kingdom artist is stunned that his artwork depicting Jesus standing before an X-factor type panel has been banned from London’s tube platforms
Transport for London decided the work by Antony Micallef could not appear alongside other contemporary interpretations of the Passion of Christ during Lent.
Micallef said the decision is censorship.
He could not understand why an Anglican Church in Marylebone had let the work be displayed, but the transport authority ruled it out.
Micallef and other artists were commissioned by the public art organisation Art Below of the Stations of the Cross project to coincide with Lent.
The works are on display in St Marylebone church in London, and posters are at tube stations that have a symbolic link with the theme, such as King’s Cross, Angel and St Paul’s.
There are works by 20 artists in the show and organisers had not been expecting all the pieces to go on tube posters.
Six were declined by Transport for London.
Micallef’s black-and-white painting plays with the idea of how Jesus would be judged in 2014, and shows him before a smiling panel of four judges.
Instead of Pop Idol on the desk, it says “Kill Your Idol”.
Micallef offered to smudge out this phrase if that was the issue.
The artist depicted Jesus as stripped and crowned with thorns.
A spokesperson for the transport authority said the poster was rejected because it did not comply with its advertising policy.
She pointed to a clause that covers concerns causing “widespread or serious offence to members of the public” and another referring to advertisements that do not comply with the law or incite someone to break the law.
But Micallef pointed out there were posters all over the tube network for the film “Calvary” with the words: “Killing a priest on a Sunday. That’ll be a good one.”
Blogging for The Tablet, Abigail Frymann wrote that Transport for London misunderstood what offends Christians.
Sources
- The Guardian
- The Tablet
- Image: Art Below