BBC news calls it "My Sweet Lord", Esquire calls it "The 485,460-Calorie Messiah" whilst on the artist's (Cosimo Cavallaro) very own website its simply referred to as 'Christ'...
Makes you think doesn't it? Ususally this sort of stuff is saved for Christmas - in terms of our usual exclamations that Christian festivals have become too commercialised... but lets take two different view points - a) The artist is doing this purely to shock and b) the artist is trying to say something.
If the artist is doing the former, then he is relatively shallow - its really no more intelligent than a flasher on the street, a drunk celebrity causing a brawl in a restaurant or even a politician suddenly becoming passionate about green issues... its easy, its obvious, its childish even.
If he is trying to make a statement, what might he be trying to say?
Christmas targets are often easier to spot, we dish out the same old stories about it being too commercialised and watch "its a beautiful life" and say its not how it ought to be. Easter however is a bit of a different story. Look beyond Mel Gibson's 'Passion' and breeze past Python's "Life of Brian" and perhaps Easter is too commercialised as well... an Easter where we give the token nod towards Calvary and tuck into our chocolate eggs...
I don't condone it yet at the same time I don't think we should ignore it. Perhaps its a reminder to all of us about the fact that Easter often passes most of us by, we might not go to such extraordinary lengths, but surely Easter is more than eggs, more than DIY & Bank Holidays, more than just another Christian date on the calendar.
Perhaps that Jesus is for life, for Easter, not just for Christmas.
