Controversial Religious Icon Barbie Exhibit Cancelled Due To Death Threats
Most religions take their iconic figures very seriously, and true believers don’t take kindly to people using their icons as the inspiration for products that could be seen as blasphemous.
Artists Emiliano Paolini and Marianela Perelli discovered just how serious the Catholic Church takes their icons when the duo announced they were creating Barbie dolls based on popular religious figures.
The proposed series would include Barbie dressed as the Virgin Mary, Kali, and the Virgin of Guadalupe, and Ken would play Jesus on the cross, Moses and St. Sebastian, just to name a few.
Emiliano and Marianela’s exhibit “Barbie: The Plastic Religion” was supposed to be shown at the POPA Gallery in Buenos Aires, but the duo began receiving death threats and decided to cancel the show.
The Catholic Church might not see the humor in these figures, but there are plenty of art toy collectors that would pay a pretty penny for these heavenly plastic creations!
-Via Beautiful/Decay
We hope you like this article!
Please help us grow by sharing:
Get Updates In Your Inbox
Free weekly emails, plus get access
to subscriber-only prizes.
So, if my comment is bigotry (which I beg you to explain how) what exactly were you implying with that one?
Considering Muslims are asked not to depict the Prophet Muhammad I don't see how opting not to do a Muhammad Ken is necessarily pussy-footing around so much as being respectful. Hindu and Catholic traditions have plenty of visual idols. Islam doesn't.
And then there's this:
On their Facebook page, the two artists write in Spanish that there was no way they would depict Muhammad out of their great respect for Islam but stressed they did not intend to offend any religion.