Jamaican Artist Laura Facey Sparks Controversy With "Body & Blood of Christ" Sculpture of a Nude Male Torso

Jamaican artist Laura Facey sparks controversy with "Body & Blood of Christ" work portraying Jesus nude and armless.

Is the latest work by Jamaica-based artist Laura Facey an insult to Christians everywhere? Ms. Facey's latest work, entitled "Body and Blood of Christ," shows Jesus in the buff and has sparked controversy. According to the Jamaica Observer, Ms. Facey sparked outrage with her 2003 piece "Redemption Song" that featured the sculpture of a naked man and woman. Jamaica has never been a country in which sexuality was broadcast. Instead, it was always treated as a private matter, so this naked Jesus comes out of left field and is certain to cause Jamaicans to be red-faced.

Armless and legless, it bears a deep-red gash in the right side to approximate, no doubt, the piercing of Christ's side by His Roman tormenter's spear prior to His death on the cross. On the floor in front of the sculpture, blood red artificial silk roses, each one purposefully placed, fan out from the base, in this case, the thighs of the Christ. Again, like the Emancipation Park installation that first gained her local notoriety outside of the art world, the male member is proportional, yet prominent.

"Look, nakedness... it's a glorious thing," Facey said emphatically, when asked about whether she is concerned about a connection being made between nakedness and sex in the piece. "It's a God-given thing, it's a sacred thing," she added with a sigh, "How can you separate all these things? You can't!" Nudity and art, she said, go hand-in-hand and have for centuries in cultures across the world. Source 

I'm sure not many Jamaicans will view Jesus Christ and the suffering he endured through the lens of a faux gold-leafed, naked man. Share your thoughts. Is this much ado about nothing or an insult to Christians celebrating Easter?