Art, for f*cks sake.

It is universally acknowledged that arts prizes are a foul con, a swindle to deceive the gullible and make a shit-load of money for the winners.

The Mann Booker*, the Vogel, the Miles Franklin – high profile crap one and all.

Now it seems some biffo has broken out around the Blake Prize, described as “the nation's top prize for religious art”.

Apart from the inevitable “what, we have a prize for religious art now?” I suspect the most common reaction will be “oh, for fuck’s sake”.

The Age notes;

It is understood that one of the Blake Prize judges, academic Christopher Allen, has resigned from the panel over his vehement objections to Sydney artist Adam Cullen's work. The triptych shows Christ on the cross with the inscription "only woman bleed", inspired by a line from an Alice Cooper song.

Mr Cullen goes on to say

"All the other entries would be of a Jew on two bits of wood. It's a very left-wing, almost pseudo- femme, artwork. How can he be offended?"

Come again? How can it be “very left-wing”?

Christ clutching a hammer and sickle would be very left-wing. Christ driving the money changers out of the temple might be very left-wing. A girly Christ is not.

Get your hand off it, wanker.

The paper also notes

Among the more provocative works is a picture of Melbourne party boy Corey Worthington as Jesus.

"Jesus was crucified to pay for the sins of man, and Corey was crucified by the media to pay for the sins of the MySpace generation," said Sydney photographer Dean Sewell, who created the image.

This old shtick again. Whack an image of Christ on something and bingo-bango it’s a “provocative work”.

Whack an image of Mohamed on something, however, and you have angry mobs burning down the Austrian embassy in Islamabad.

*I’m prepared to make an exemption for J.G. Farrell’s The Siege of Krishnapur, which was an absolute cracker.

Oh and Midnight’s Children. But that’s it.