We Don't Need No Stinkin' Reality

Video of beheading in Iraq part of Nashville art exhibit - Thursday, 10/21/04

A video showing the beheading of an American hostage in Iraq has caused a stir at the Watkins College of Art & Design in Nashville, Tennessee, according to an article in The Tennesseean.

The video is part of an installation that is still being constructed and did not go on view after a complaint was lodged by a 48-year-old parttime student. The artist, student Elvan Penny, 31, said the video contains includes the sight and sound of the beheading of hostage Eugene Armstrong late last month and was conceived as a kind of wake-up call to jar viewers out of complacency and toward a better understanding of the horrific violence overseas. He agreed to having the video placed in a separate curtained alcove near the gallery, but says people are ''getting bent out of shape over nothing.''

Sixty-six percent of the respondents in an online poll said the piece should be romeved from the show although it is unlikely many of them have seen it. Another eight percent said it should stay in show, but have a veil placed over it. Only 27 percent said leave it alone.

More about the video at The Washington Times, The Detroit Free Press and elsewhere.  ¶ 3:32 PM