InsiderAdvantage has learned that outgoing Kennesaw State University President Dan Papp is under fire for allowing display of a provocative exhibit– “Art AIDS America— which slams Republican leaders and highlights obscenity. Insiders say he is especially worried about an alumni donor backlash. Oddly, it is the only Southern stop on a national tour.
The Marietta Daily Journal article provides some perspective about the exhibit:
“The mixed-media installation includes pictures of the late President Ronald Reagan, conservative godfather William F. Buckley Jr., conservative Sen. Jesse Helms and televangelist Jerry Falwell, mixed in with what appear to be Nazi storm troopers under a neon pink triangle, (the symbol homosexuals were forced to wear in Hitler’s Germany). “Attached to the wall is an electronic scrolling sign that states ‘Let the record show’ before going into a countdown on how many people died from AIDS before Reagan publicly mentioned the disease. The countdown goes on and on and on, leaving the impression that Reagan didn’t care about the epidemic. “Moving on from this Republican trashing, the visitor is greeted by a painting of a naked man wearing a clown mask engaged in a sex act with a skeleton. “The piece, by Jerome Caja, is titled “Bozo f**** death.” “Nearby are several photographs of a middle-aged man, covered in lesions and wearing a Superman costume, his genitals exposed as he engages in a sex act.”
InsiderAdvantage cannot describe other aspects of the exhibit due to taste reasons.
Wanda Becker of east Cobb County, whose daughter recently graduated from KSU, says she was “sickened” after seeing the exhibit. “It was sickening to me how they exploited the lives. I didn’t feel like the focus was on the victims of the horrible disease. It was a political piece that took away from the precious lives that were lost,” Becker said. “I went there to see the faces and not to hear a political message.”
The display is scheduled to be at KSU through May 22.
