THE Queensland artist behind a controversial work depicting terrorism mastermind Osama bin Laden morphing into Jesus today invited those considering her work to look a little more deeply than the obvious comparison of good and evil. Queensland artist Priscilla Bracks denied she had deliberately set out to be offensive. "Absolutely not, no, no. I am not interested in being offensive. I am interested in having a discussion and asking questions about how we think about our world and what we accept and what we don't accept," she told ABC radio. Ms Bracks' work and a statue of the Virgin Mary wearing an Islamic burqa by Sydney artist Luke Sullivan have been entered into Australia's top religious art competition, the Blake Prize. Both Prime Minister John Howard and Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd have criticised their inclusion. "The choice of such artwork is gratuitously offensive to the religious beliefs of many Australians," Mr Howard said in News Ltd newspapers. Ms Bracks welcomed the criticism. "Well I suppose we always have an opinion on how they do their job. I am fine with the fact that they might have an opinion on how I do mine," she said.
Another artist wanting to be thrust in the limelight, another round of the same debate. It was Piss Christ in Melbourne a few years back. As Jeff Kennett said at the time "If they don't want to see it don't come".
