"Piss Christ"

“Piss Christ”, a 1987 photograph by artist Andre Serrano, is, on the surface, a piece of anti-Christian propaganda composed of a plastic crucifix submerged in a vile of the artist’s urine. Controversial at best, this work caused a national uproar when displayed in a private gallery in 1989. Not only was this photograph open to public exhibition, it was the winner of the Southeastern Conference of the Contemporary Art’s “Awards for the Visual Arts” competition, an organization partly sponsored by the National Endowment of the Arts, a government agency dedicated to the funding of artistic projects. This essentially means that Andre Serrano’s slap in the face to people of faith across the nation was subsidized in part by these taxpaying Christ followers themselves; an issue they proposed was a violation against their rights, claiming it breached the laws of the separation of Church and State. Serrano himself received death threats and hate mail, later losing backing by his sponsor’s because of the work’s religious controversy. However, what we may not be able to see immediately, through the fog of obscene vulgarity that tends to cloud our vision when gazing upon this serene image of Christ on the cross, bathed in a golden light of offense, is that Andres Serrano himself was a devout Catholic. To him, this symbol of divinity, piety, and dedication to Christ enveloped in his own “piss” was meant to highlight a truth that we as Christians are not so quick to recognize.  In an interview with The Guardian, just days after Serrano’s photograph went on display for the second time at the Edward Tyler Nahem gallery in New York, Serrano himself commented on his piece. “Piss Christ is a reflection of my work; not only as an artist, but as a Christian…The thing about the crucifix itself is that we treat it almost like a fashion accessory. When you see it, you're not horrified by it at all, but what it represents is the crucifixion of a man... So if Piss Christ upsets you, maybe it's a good thing to think about what happened on the cross." Sister Wendy, a Catholic nun and renowned art critic expounded on the relevance of Serrano’s message. She stated, “…this is what we are doing to Christ. We are not treating him with reverence; His great sacrifice is not used, we live very vulgar lives, we put Christ in a bottle of urine…to call it blasphemous is really begging to question: it could be, or it could not be. It’s what you make of it.”