#1
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http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/02/sva-seized-68-vials-of-semen-art-from-marc-johnson.html
Art School Seized 68 Vials of Semen From Student

School of Visual Arts MFA student Marc Bradley Johnson was all set to debut his final piece, titled Take This Sperm and Be Free of Me, before health concerns thwarted everything he'd worked so hard for. First, Johnson accessed his materials. Then he set up a refrigerator at SVA's Visual Arts Gallery in Chelsea, loaded it with 68 vials of his own semen, and put up a Craigslist ad alerting the public that anyone could walk in and take a part of him home. It was about "creation, parenting, desire, masculinity, fantasy, and reality," he said. But his liberal Manhattan art school just saw dangerous waste.

"I've been working on this for months," Johnson told Daily Intelligencer, "Somewhat ironically — it's just masturbating and calling it artwork." He said his professors were well aware and that he'd shown the work multiple times in class critiques. "This isn't unprecedented," he said. "There is plenty of bio-hazardous work in the art world."

When the issue of safety was first raised by SVA's assistant director of student galleries, Richard Brooks, Johnson even agreed to microwave the vials. "You can only microwave for eight seconds before it bubbles over the container," Johnson said. "The semen is dead. The swimmers are not swimming. While I try to do absurd things, I'm not interested in doing reckless things."

The piece debuted without incident at the group show "Split Ends" last Friday, but the next morning Johnson received an e-mail from John DeLuca, the school's director of environmental health and safety. "A considerable issue has come up surrounding your piece," DeLuca wrote, noting that "the distribution of human tissue, or in this case your sperm cells, whether dead or alive is not permitted by the law outside of a medically directed facility" and "in checking with a biomedical scientist I was informed that there is no way to ensure the sperm samples would be 100 percent free of pathogens." He added, "In order to protect the public and comply with all appropriate regulations we will need to secure the refrigerator until I can arrange to have the sperm samples disposed of as hazardous biowaste."

The vials were sealed, labeled, and placed in Brooks's office until a waste-management firm could arrange a pickup. Johnson, who was raised Mormon and attended undergrad at BYU ("where figure drawing classes models wore bikinis or speedos") immediately claimed censorship. "I am happy that he had to sit with 68 vials of my cum in his presence," he said.

After days of wrangling with Johnson, who threatened to go to the media, the university called off the professional disposal. "Although it is regrettable that the artwork had to be modified after going on display, and better communication was called for in planning the exhibition, it is incumbent on any responsible exhibition venue to consider the law and public safety," said SVA in a statement, citing New York Public Health Code 10 NYCRR 52-8, "laws governing the collection, storage and distribution of human reproductive tissue." Michael Grant, the school's director of communication, said the removal was cancelled after Johnson "agreed that the vials and refrigerator would be sealed and the vials would not be available for visitors to take away."

But the artist still isn't happy: "Mostly I'm disheartened, disappointed, and distraught that SVA has decided that avoiding a highly unlikely potential lawsuit is more important than the merit of my ideas — ideas that have already been condoned and fostered by SVA," he wrote the school.

"I've basically missed half of my thesis show," said an audibly agitated Johnson, who was given back the sealed box of his "work." The big reception at the gallery is tonight. The piece, in its altered form, now comes with a memo attached:

This refrigerator contained 68 vials of fresh semen harvested by the artist. The public was free to take the vials. The School of Visual Arts quarantined and sealed the vials in the box now in the refrigerator, labeled ‘bio hazardous waste.’

SVA sees the creative potential of the artist as a health hazard and deemed too unsafe to be taken by the public.
#2
Kurdt
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*reaches for browning*
#3
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a guy i know got a bare pass for his graduation show project at art school. why?

he recorded the entire process of making a single, meeting record company people, signing contracts, everything, and played it all at once, loud enough that it could be heard in a two mile radius... the people who run art schools hate that kind of shit
#4
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lol
#5
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apparently all this time it turns out i've been an artist....
#6
Poronto
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i always wondered why he had a browning and not a lüger or a walther which would have been somewhat more patriotic
#7
Kurdt
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and why does james bond use a walther
#8
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wow he doesnt know it but those art cops saved him a lot of hassle. he set himself up for a major league cum heist. hell im jonsing for some mys elf
#9
[account deactivated]
#10
meet me in st louis
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well i guess he should get back to work and hard
#11
objekt-a.tumblr.com
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cut my sperm into pieces
#12
political car tune
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this is my last cumsquirt
#13
FLAWDA
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"I am happy that he had to sit with 68 vials of my cum in his presence," he said.
#14
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"I'm going to go to the media about my jars of sperm you took!"

see this is a problem with art in general these days; the infinite regression to childishness

who gives a shit, like why should anyone care about this guys semen....urgh it's all so frustrating
#15
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SORRY, NERDS, BUT OBAMA WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE JEDI MELD (AND METAPHYSICS)

Submitted by Petey on March 1, 2013 - 3:53pm

#16
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Cum.
#17
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Far from being a mistake, mixed metaphor, or slip-of-the-tongue, Obama's extemporaneous invocation of "Jedi Meld" was precisely on point, simultaneously displaying his nuanced and considerable command of the finer details of actor-network theory and the Star Wars: Expanded Universe. Instead of mocking him from the comfort of our replica X-wing armchairs, as nerds and citizens we should be honored and awed by a commander-in-chief who offhandedly deploys such concepts in the public discourse.
#18
[account deactivated]
#19
FLAWDA
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I wonder how much calling around it took to find a waste management firm that would pick up 68 vials of cum, or rather a fridge filled with 68 vials of cum. i bet there were a lot of hang-ups
#20
Kurdt
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#21
[account deactivated]
#22
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PUT VIDDO ONNA PHONE ASSHOLE
#23
[account deactivated]
#24
sing hallelujah
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art school lol
#25
Kurdt
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Crow posted:

Far from being a mistake, mixed metaphor, or slip-of-the-tongue, Obama's extemporaneous invocation of "Jedi Meld" was precisely on point, simultaneously displaying his nuanced and considerable command of the finer details of actor-network theory and the Star Wars: Expanded Universe. Instead of mocking him from the comfort of our replica X-wing armchairs, as nerds and citizens we should be honored and awed by a commander-in-chief who offhandedly deploys such concepts in the public discourse.

haha i just realized this is real

#26
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why should anyone care about this guys semen? how is this guy different from me? are the ways he's different from me ways that would change our semen? why then, would anyone care about my semen, or any of our semen? If my semen does not have value, then what do I produce that does have value? These are the questions that good, truly good, art forces us to consider. Bravo semen guy. You are brave and strong.
#27
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gyrofry posted:

Crow posted:

Far from being a mistake, mixed metaphor, or slip-of-the-tongue, Obama's extemporaneous invocation of "Jedi Meld" was precisely on point, simultaneously displaying his nuanced and considerable command of the finer details of actor-network theory and the Star Wars: Expanded Universe. Instead of mocking him from the comfort of our replica X-wing armchairs, as nerds and citizens we should be honored and awed by a commander-in-chief who offhandedly deploys such concepts in the public discourse.

haha i just realized this is real



Chris 'Petey' Peterson Aleksey I believe you are looking for http://burgermap.org

#28
[account deactivated]
#29
Mike Nelson here.
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"let's spill our seed instead of using it solely for procreation" - someone definitely not going to hell (*sarcasm*)
#30
Kurdt
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o no no no no onan
#31
Online
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rhizzone census march 2013:
muslims: 3
catholics: 14
protestants: 0
atheists: more than i'd like to admit

Edited by ilmdge ()

#32
Mike Nelson here.
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ilmdge posted:

rhizzone census march 2013:
muslims: 3
catholics: 14
protestants: 0
atheists: more than i'd like

14? I thought you supported liberation theology, not Christianity?

#33
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#34
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man kills wife, child at cracker barrel
#35
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or is it crate & barrel
#36
Kurdt
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crackwhore bare all