SHTETL ON THE SHORTWAVE

Blasphemous Art?

Do you hate nationalism? You’ll be even more disgusted by it after you watch  artist Natali Cohen Vaxberg‘s “Shit Instead of Blood” video where she poos on over 50 world flags. It’s one of her many outrageous and controversial videos. You might hate her work or think it’s disgusting or hate the message, (you may also find it hysterical and important), but did she deserve to be arrested for her art? The Israeli government thinks so.

Cohen Vaxberg’s work is anti-fascist, anti-racist and feminist.  There are no sacred cows and she aims her black humour (and her screaming) at everything from Israel’s pleas to the French Jews to move en-masse in The Promised Cake, to refugee issues, the separation wall between Israel and Palestine, Gaza, and probably most controversial is her work about the Holocaust.

In a Passover video “Only Israelites Are Kosher” we join a fascist middle-aged woman and her guests (all dolls) for a seder that never ends.  Her most recent video “Flag and Cop” , a response to being arrested for showing disrespect to the Israeli flag, has her playing a loyal cop who gives head to his little flag when he comes home, and is willing to make the ultimate sacrifices to please his master.

Cohen Vaxberg is the guest on this episode of Shtetl Middle East.  Her videos laugh and scream in the face of almost every serious issue facing Israel in particular and the Western world in general. But the Israeli government is not laughing.

What do you think of her work?

Music on this episode by:  Kid Loco, Lederhosen Lucil, Mozart, KRS-One, Louis Armstrong, Benny Bell, Peaches, South Parc, SoCalled and Solomon.

Tune in to hear this episode of Shtetl Middle East on Friday, May 20th at 11AM on CKUT 90.3FM in Montreal. Or stream/download the show right here.