In case you didn't know (I sure didn't), there is a Japanese ban on beef imports from Britain. That seems pretty straightforward, but it ended up causing some problems for an art exhibit traveling to Japan recently.It seems that part of a retrospective of the British Turner Prize are works by artist Damien Hirst. Here's where it gets tricky. Hirst's art consists of preserved cows, as in whole dead cows stored in a formaldehyde solution. When presented with these preserved cows at customs, officials had to be convinced that these were not cows for consumption. Officials also had a problem with the possible fumes from the formaldehyde, but they were finally convinced that no one would be harmed.
I am all for art, but preserved cows? I also have to wonder what kind of bureaucrat would be so worried that someone would consider this stuff edible that they thought about denying it entry into the country. I guess a ban is a ban to some people.
[Via Reuters UK]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-11-2008 @ 5:04PM
Alex said...
"Hirst's art consists of preserved cows, as in whole dead cows stored in a formaldehyde solution."
No, actually, his art consists of a lot more than dead cows in formaldehyde. This site has quite a collection of Hirst works: mostly not dead cows and, in fact, mostly not in formaldehyde.
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