Daniel
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Leo
Kesting Gallery Presents: NEW YORK (September 17, 2008) – First Lady hopeful Michelle Obama receives an ‘Inaugural Ball’ makeover for providing a makeover to the face of the US. The sexy, bare-shouldered style-enhancement highlights Obama’s ethnicity to create a new fashion template for the 21st Century First Lady, and is the latest installment of sculptor Daniel Edwards’s “Inspire America” series, courtesy of Manhattan’s Leo Kesting Gallery. “Michelle Obama’s Makeover for America” presents an accessorized mannequin bust of Obama that foregoes the conventional pearl necklace, and provides for her a ‘signature look’ to take to Washington. “The goal is to create a look for Michelle Obama that eliminates excessive comparisons to Jackie Kennedy,” said Edwards, who studied under the tutelage of legendary fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez, “like supermodel Tyra Banks’s photos in Harper’s Bazaar, or the puzzling comment from CBS’s Byron Pitts that recommended ‘less Jackee, more Jackie O.’” A pearl-studded Afro pick, shaped like an eagle, demonstrates the makeover’s fashion mix of Black African and White House heritage to reinvigorate the traditional First Lady pearls. A tight, spiral-textured mane complements Michelle Obama’s likeness, with the pearl Afro pick placed modishly askew in a Nefertiti-esque hairstyle. Included are big hoop earrings shaped like O’s that seem to suggest, according to a gallery spokesman, “Look out Oprah, a new ‘Lady O’s’ in charge.” Adorning the breasts of Michelle Obama’s bust are temporary tattoos, of which an American flag is depicted, to compensate for Barack’s pin-free lapels. Additional breast tattoo designs for Mrs. Obama, by Chicago tattoo artist Alex Higgins, will also be exhibited. “Michelle Obama inspires a fashion template change that many First Ladies of the 21st Century may follow, as we witness minorities in this country becoming the majority,” added the spokesman. ‘Accusing British Museum of racism’ “As a professor at the New York Academy’s Graduate School of Figurative Art, I teach my students that the gold is found in the people who inspire us,” says Edwards. In an open letter to the British Museum at http://www.LeoKesting.com/, charging racism, Edwards suggests, “In the spirit of friendly global interaction, sculptor Marc Quinn should make amends to humanity by melting down his 2.8 million dollar gold cast of Kate Moss.” “The
sculpture of someone like Michelle Obama doesn’t need to be cast
in gold for people to understand its value,” said Edwards, whose
past works from the “Inspire America” series include “The
Presidential Bust of Hillary Rodham Clinton” featured at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4R-8MUs4R8,
the “Oprah Sarcophagus,” and “The Iraq War Memorial”
featuring a war-dead Prince Harry clutching the cameo-locket of his late
mother, Princess Diana. OPEN
LETTER TO Neil MacGregor Director of THE BRITISH MUSEUM Neil MacGregor Dear Mr. MacGregor, As a sculptor whose primary subject is the figure, I am appalled to see that the British Museum would contribute to what amounts to as racist behavior in the forthcoming exhibit “Statuephilia,” curated by Waldemar Januszczak and James Fox. By hosting Marc Quinn’s contribution to the exhibit, the gold cast sculpture of Kate Moss, which promotes the Anglo type as the ideal form of beauty, I feel your institution is reinforcing a destructive message of racial superiority. Marc Quinn is on record saying about his supermodel subject, “I thought the next thing to do would be to make a sculpture of the person who’s the ideal beauty of the moment.” I find the solid gold sculpture of British supermodel Kate Moss, reportedly worth 1.5 million pounds and of which your museum is touting as the most significant gold casting since ancient times, to be an overt declaration that the English possess superior beauty, which suggests racial superiority. As an American, I am sensitive to this subject largely because the American experience doesn’t allow for the careless selection of one ethnic type to be upheld as the example of ideal beauty. As sculptors, our responsibility is to reveal the beauty that gets overlooked by other forms of media. I believe, for example, in the beauty of the modern day American civil-rights champion Michelle Obama, and I believe in the beauty of your country’s wheelchair bound physicist Stephen Hawking. A sculpture of someone with their qualities doesn’t need to be cast in gold for people to understand its value. As a professor at the New York Academy of Art’s Graduate School of Figurative Art, I teach my students that the gold in this world is found in the people who inspire us. In an effort of diplomacy, and to encourage better relations between the UK and US, I would be glad to set up a symposium at the New York Academy of Art to help British sculptors make better choices in regard to their work. The symposium could feature a panel of sculptors from different cultures and ethnicities, to discuss the global topics relevant to contemporary figurative sculpture that would appeal to more inclusive themes with which to inspire. I believe that rather than allow a fellow sculptor to make a mistake the way Marc Quinn has made, in alienating people by promoting an exclusive agenda that harkens Third Reich notions of beauty, we should all be willing to lend a helping hand by reminding each other to be considerate of the feelings of others. In the spirit of friendly global interaction, sculptor Marc Quinn should make amends to humanity by melting down his 2.8 million dollar gold cast of Kate Moss before the British Museum’s October 4th unveiling. Sincerely, Daniel Edwards Professor of Sculpture
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