back to article Republicans hammer Brit artist's Bush

US Republicans are none too pleased with Brit artist Jonathan Yeo, who's just completed a fetching portrait of George Bush constructed from grumble mag clippings: Jonathan Yeo's portrait of George Bush The work was unveiled yesterday at London's Lazarides gallery, which explains the motivation behind the thought-provoking …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Roast Duck

    monica lewenski....

    ....will be happy to have her old job back..

  2. Matthew Anderson

    Title

    I can help but sing a new rendition of Bruce Springsteen

    Porn in The USA!

    Missed out on a good headline there ;-)

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Here we go again

    Puritarian Bible-bashers with no sense of humour. If you can't laugh at yourself, you will end up bitter and twisted with massive chips on your shoulders. It's the only way forward even though there is no IT angle here. (...but I don't suppose you see the humour in this post do you?)

    Asbestos suit on...

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Very apt

    Considering that most of the body parts that pornography concentrates on describe Bush very nicely.

  5. Andy Clyde

    Cheap stunt?

    Surely it should have been described as a "cunning stunt" rather than a cheap stunt...

  6. Martin Eriksson

    Free Speech?

    Right, so cartoons of Mohammed are merely an expression of free speech but a porntrait of the US president (an elected figure and definitely not holy) is "distasteful" and "will cause outrage in America"?

    Hypocritical bastards...

  7. Bob Jones

    Shocking

    I am actually quite digusted at that picture and this is from a Brit, there is a picture on his ear of a woman giving a blowjob for god sakes.

  8. Jez Ockenden

    Portrait

    As good an idea as it is, what I wasn't expecting was that it's actually a really good portrait

  9. Pat O'Ban

    What is the source for all torn up grumble?

    A Bush! <rimshot />

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Cheap stunt"

    I don't think it can be classed as a cheap stunt - have you seen the price of porn mags? Or was he using mainly softcore?

    Anyway, apart from the obvious ear shot, there isn't much to say 'this is made of porn' - could be any flesh toned pictures.

  11. Chris Collins

    Good pic

    I think it's a pretty good likeness. I would never have seen the woman smoking one in his ear if outraged Bob Jones from Tunbridge Wells hadn't pointed it out. Thanks mate, had a hearty laugh as well.

  12. Liam Johnson

    Glue

    I wonder what he used to get the clippings to stick together?

  13. William Donelson

    The look of a hard-nosed Zealot

    Downturned lips, compressed and constipated...

    Somewhat vacant look in the eyes...

    Hard-facets of the face indicating closed-mindedness...

    Superior view, i.e. he's above you in the picture, indicating self-righteousness.

    Only thing wrong: Should have a Swastika on his forehead !

    Otherwise, a PERFECT picture!

    IMPEACH CHENEY and his stooge, BUSH. Send them to prison for life.

  14. Simon.W

    Absolutely bloody disgusting. How dare...

    that artist do this.

    I hope the body part owners litigate the hell out of Jonathan Yeo for associating them with such an image.

  15. Greg Nelson

    Armchair Philosophy

    Bertrand Russell expressed the view that a motivation for studying philosophy should be gaining the ability to understand things from another's perspective. He buttressed the above view by stating he would rather his works be critiqued by his worst enemy trained in philosophy than by someone without training in philosophy. As I've no formal training in philosophy I feel free to pretend to Russell's said benefit from studying philosophy to bash the Republican's viewpoint on Jonathan Yeo's work.

    Russell's critique of Hegel in Chapter XXII of 'The History of Western Philosophy' seems to speak directly to Bush and the American, Utopian neocons, and, more especially how the Republican President is viewed. The Hegelian, triadic dialectic of thesis, antithesis and synthesis stems from an Aristotelian view that all is god and god is a thought thinking about itself. The Hegelian dialectic leads to a belief that wholes are better than parts. Translated into political theory the individual must suborn h/is/er rights to the state as the state being comprised of individuals is a higher, more godlike, state than any individual. As the state is closer to god, the president as the head of state is a Christ figure much like the Pope. Bush is Christ and like Christ and other Messiahs a figure not to be trifled with. Bush has said he let Jesus into his heart and he appears to rule by divine right. The neocons as Utopians appear to be of a Hegelian bent much like the Nazis and the Marxists were. The evangelical right that brought Bush to power couldn't have wished for a more deluded, dedicated Messiah to lead them to the promised land of milk and honey in a pure, harmonious capitalist system.

  16. Torcuill Torrance

    Try it yourself

    You can make up your own mosaics in a similar fashion by using MacOSaiX and putting in some choice terms in to Google Images.

    http://homepage.mac.com/knarf/MacOSaiX/Examples/

    Try it with a photo of a colleague and your favourite adjectives for them.

  17. DZ-Jay

    Oh, now I see it!

    >> I am actually quite digusted at that picture and this is from a Brit, there is a picture on his ear of a woman giving a blowjob for god sakes.

    I really couldn't make out any bits, so thanks for pointing that one out; I see it.

    Nice overall picture, though. I agree with the above: I'd call it a "cunning stunt".

    Viewer: "What is it?"

    Artist: "Its a picture of Bush"

    Viewer: "What's your medium?"

    Artist: "Bush."

    Viewer: "No, I mean, what is it made out of?"

    Artist: "Bush. Lots of 'em."

    Viewer: "Ah."

    -dZ.

  18. Dave

    Another Unpaid Commission?

    Perhaps the artist could do another picture, only using images of dead bodies from Iraq? After all, sex is immoral and should be restricted, violence is just fine.

  19. Stu

    Another bush pic...

    ...floating around on the net is one made up entirely of different coloured square anus bitmaps. Yes, close up pix of anuses - thousands of em. You could even download a hi-res poster version of it!

    I cant find it online any more tho - perhaps the republicans have exercised their illuminati connections and wiped it off the face of the net.

    I too would never have seen the woman in his ear if Bob Jones from Tunbridge Wells hadn't pointed it out! Thanks muchly, its hilarious!

  20. james marley

    Makes a nice change...

    ...George Bush talking out of someone else's arse.

  21. Torcuill Torrance

    Presidential portrait constructed from Reg hack grumblings

    Using MacOSaiX, here's Dubya constructed using Google Images and Flickr... and "Republicans hammer Brit artist's Bush" terms

    http://picasaweb.google.com/torcuill/Mosaics

    I'm only slightly worried at the Tony Blair pimple on his forehead.

    Its art Daaaaaaahling!

  22. Norman Wanzer

    Every Right

    Regardless if you agree with the material the portrait is made out of, it is a good likeness.

    I would like to remind those people in the US who find this objectionable, that the artist has every right to express himself. Freedom of speech is something this country was founded on. Sadly, this is an understanding that has faded a lot since this president was elected. We as a nation have forgotten what was once said by Voltaire and adopted in spirit in our Constitution "I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."

  23. Andy Taylor

    I always thought

    that Dubya was a bit of a see you next Tuesday, this just confirms it.

  24. teacake

    @Greg Nelson

    Given the subject matter, I suppose it's only appropriate that comments should be a load of pretentious w*nk.

    Hegelian triadic dialectic, indeed.

  25. Law

    cool

    I wonder how the new aussie porn filter would handle such an image.... probably blow up

  26. Daniel Voyce

    C*ntface has the face of a C*nt

    Now its official - George Dubya Bush is officially a C*ntface - his face is definetly made out of C*nts and Bush!

  27. lansalot

    Needs better title

    I humbly submit "Jazz mags come together to form big bush."

    Howzat ?

    I thought that "Many c??nts come together to form biggest c??t" just a ilttle too, well, accurate.

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ask any artist

    skin tones can be tricky.

  29. Eduard Coli

    At least he got his name in the news

    He's a populist artist, who can blame him?

  30. John Stag

    Luckily he doesn't have a beard.....

    NT

  31. Steve Evans

    Errrr...

    What's that going on in his right ear? It's not an earpiece for a change!

  32. Connor Garvey

    monica lewenski....

    is on his left ear

  33. Peter Pediaditakis

    Looks like Bush to me

    I hope he used some skanky pics (like Hustler) because W is one skanky president

  34. William Donelson

    Actually...

    To be even more accurate, the picture should have been composed of Dead Bodies from Iraq, New Orleans, etc.

  35. Alan Donaly

    Taking something good

    taking an ordinarily positive thing and turning it into this creatures

    visage is blasphemous. He should have gotten different pictures with different values of dogshit to make this picture otherwise it's just using skin to make skin tones not terribly hard or that brave. I don't

    think that using the pixel content of the victims of this cold, heartless, cretinous, despicable, murdering bastard in that way is proper respect for the dead though that too would have made a accurate statement.

  36. James Pickett

    His left ear

    *His* right ear, I think...

    Best bit of Britart I've seen for some time. I'd be interested to know who commissioned it and why they changed their mind, though...

  37. Morely Dotes

    Re: Armchair Philosophy

    "president as the head of state is a Christ figure much like the Pope. Bush is Christ and like Christ and other Messiahs a figure not to be trifled with."

    But would it be all right to crucify him? Just a little bit, you know, nail him up on, say Friday morning, but take him down on Saturday?

    I'd love to see that b4st4rd try to rise from the dead after 3 days.

  38. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What does this have to do with "Biting the hand that feeds IT"

    Hmmmm?

  39. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sure . . .

    . . .it's the artist's right to create such an image, but surely people have the right to say they find it objectionable if indeed they do.

    No one was suggesting the image be destroyed or banned or censored in any way. There have been no (as far as I'm aware) mobs burning effigies of the artist in the streets of America. I wonder if that would be the case if the image was of the president of Iran for example.

    Yeah it's sad that some people lack the sense of humour to be able to laugh at this, but surely it's their right to be a bunch of humourless w*nkers if they want to be? Just as it's the artists right to p*ss those people off in a harmless way.

  40. lardheppus

    It's a bit spotty

    Is that a pimple on Bush's nose, or a nipple?

  41. Christopher B. Goldsmith

    Sturm und Drang Signifying Nothing

    The US and Texas have said NOTHING about this as to most Americans, the President is over. The world's obsession with this man says more about the world than it does the man. He has been a truly awful President but no better or worse than the world in which he lives. He is intellectually disengaged and believes he is right. Were he the only world leader who was like this it might matter. He and the US are too easy a target for the failed leftists who have as little to contribute as does the far right. I live in West Texas and to lump us together as bible-thumping morons is ignorant and no different than the ego-centrism that has guided the Bush years. Life is rarely simple and when you go for easy answers you define yourself as lost. Fix England / Fix Europe / Fix the planet and accept that we are flawed; no more or less than you.

    Get over George W. Bush ... we have.

  42. RK

    er...

    actually, dead Iraqis would have been more fitting, but the Republicans probably would have looked at that as a "compliment."

  43. Uncle Sam

    Offensive

    This picture is an offense to decent pornographers everywhere!

  44. heystoopid

    Fitting

    Fitting , a reminder to all of us , of his stay at Harvard University as young draft dodger of another morass called Vietnam , and also considering Bush juniors cavalier attitude towards the UN and the International Community in 2003 in supplying total fiction as fact and his blow hard statement from an Aircraft Carrier Deck in May of that year too.

    Mind you these days a number of GOP politically elected peoples representatives , appear to have both trouser fly and mouth malfunctions in public toilets , so they be a bunch of red neck wankers at the best of times !

    For even now , he is still literally blowing away the US Constitution bit by bit !

  45. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cnut

    Typical a porn mag with all it's pages stuck together. Very apt though: every time I hear one of his speeches I think of "The Vagina Monologues."

  46. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A bit of loving T and C

    ...what more fitting portrait could there be for such a tit/cock?

  47. Name

    Outraged?

    I don't think that many Americans will be offended by this. The fact that there are so many people here uptight enough to become outraged over something such as this makes me wonder why I've even stayed in this country for so long, however.

  48. Patrick Pottelberg

    It Could Have Been Worse

    What is the GOP complaining about? -- it could have been worse -- it could have been gay porn. Of course that would have been more appropriate to another Texan president -- LBJ -- all those johnsons. Or maybe that medium should be reserved for portraits of President Polk. Personally I see nothing wrong with making a presidential portrait out of photos of people Lincoln up in various positions of sexual congress -- but all of this sex talk is making me randy enough to mount McKinley.

  49. Dion R

    If you look closely.......

    You can see a bit of jizz on his chin! - Well, that was last time i saw him on telly anyway...

    But i guess, the artist made him into a useful bush - err, several of em - cue gecko gloves !

  50. Tim Bates

    A bit of a twat?

    Good to see that the US lot get upset when they get screwed over.

    I think I'd do something similar if I was asked to do some work ($$$$) by the US government only to be told to go away later. I imagine this artist had costs he incurred in the process of not getting the work, so good to see him getting revenge the best possible way.

    Would it be bad to say I always thought GWBush was a bit of a twat?

  51. Chris Barrett

    The (w)hole being greater than the sum of its parts?

    The *ssh*le that the overall picture represents is far more offensive to me than the many smaller ones that make up the montage.

  52. A. Lloyd Flanagan

    As an American, I'm disgusted!

    What a sad waste of good porn. Oh well, I understand you can still get some on the Internet somewhere.

This topic is closed for new posts.