Progressive art forms have
long been noted for their affinity with radical, leftist and liberal causes.
From music to literature and onwards, arts have played a leading role in
helping foment the revolutions (especially the sexual) so inimical to life
and family values.
One can look at the 1960s
and the cultural changes wrought by events such as the 1969 Woodstock rock
music festival, or the on-TV abortion struggle of Maude in the early 1970s,
to illustrate how the arts have been used to shape the values and views
of a new generation.
But a Hamilton-area artist
is seeking to change all that. Since October, 26-year-old Bruno Capolongo
has had an encaustic, mixed-media art piece on prominent display in a major
exhibition at Hamilton's Eaton Centre, a shopping concourse located in
the heart of the downtown core.
The Scream, a four- by three-foot
piece on panel, melds images of a fetus with radical pro-abortion slogans
and reproductions of some of the most disturbing pictures in abortion history
-- including the infamous shot of late-term babies piled into a garbage
bag.
Concerns become art
"I've been concerned about
social issues for a very long time, right back to my teens," said Capolongo,
a resident of the Hamilton suburb of Stoney Creek. "But none of it was
ever translated into my artwork. I decided it was time that the things
that concern me so much find their way into my artwork."
Capolongo is currently studying
towards a masters degree in arts at the Vermont College of Norwich University
in Montpelier, Vt. He has a long history of exhibitions and awards dating
back to 1988, including several people's choice awards, an excellence-in-art
award from the Levi Strauss Co. of Canada and a Stoney Creek Men's Club
award for art.
The germ of the idea for
The Scream came when Capolongo decided to move past popular and media coverage
of the abortion issue and educate himself instead. Up until then, he had
not been active in pro-life work on any front. "I went to the library and
Hamilton Right to Life ... I began to realize (pro-life supporters) are
not exaggerating. The Scream was a reaction to what I was reading and to
the media."
He completed the work intermittently
over two months and then brought it with him for submission as part of
his studies at Vermont College. The reaction he received when he presented
the work was somewhat akin to what would have happened if he had brought
a hand grenade in and pulled the pin.
"The school program I'm in
attracts many feminists and people living ‘alternative lifestyles.' This
piece just set them on fire ... It was the centre of attention. It upset
some people, but then it pleased some people. But the people who were pleased
spoke to me only in private. Nobody wanted to stick their neck out publicly
and say, ‘I like the piece.'"
Publicly, Capolongo's piece
was savaged as being "biased" and "unintellectual." He said it was "almost
crazy" to bring the piece to school because it was like "walking into a
lions' den ... I did it anyway because I wanted to get people reacting.
And boy, did I ever."
On the other hand, one woman
-- a visiting artist and instructor at the college -- commended him on
the work. "Her daughters had both had abortions. You would have thought
she would have been defensive, but not at all."
Capolongo managed to get
the piece included in the Hamilton exhibition, called Public Hanging ‘97,
at the last minute. One of his goals was to influence people on the pro-life
issue.
"It's also to fill an artistic
void," he added. "Art that's ‘on the edge' is usually very liberal and
left-wing. Very rarely do you see progressive right-wing, or conservative,
art. That's where I'm coming from. I wanted this to be a progressive, unique
work, from a conservative perspective."
Some of Capolongo's past
artistic themes have addressed the general decline and decay of Western
civilization. So far, The Scream has fulfilled Capolongo's goal of drawing
people's attention and sparking discussion.
The Hamilton Spectator newspaper
referred to the piece as "competent but controversial," while the local
Arts Beat newspaper referred to the piece as being one that "broke the
rules and said things we consider forbidden or dangerous for the sterile
walls of a shopping centre."
Mixed reaction
Capolongo said members of
the public who have seen the work have been shocked and, to some extent,
educated. He has found it particularly heartening that many young people
have stopped by to examine the piece and discuss it. Other people have
looked at it uncomfortably, then walked away.
While the piece has so far
escaped major vandalism (a small plaque containing the title of the piece
and Capolongo's name was removed), Capolongo said he almost expects the
piece to be destroyed some day. If that happens, Capolongo will consider
it almost poetic, in that the pro-abortion movement's destruction of the
art work will parallel its destruction of unborn human lives.
But the threats posed by
vandalism and destruction of his art pieces don't faze Capolongo. He has
plans for other pro-life works in the future, including one tentatively
entitled Massacre of the Innocents. In the meantime, he wants to exhibit
The Scream far and wide.
"I definitely want to exhibit
this more. But I don't want recognition for it. I don't care if people
know who did this or not. I just want them to walk away and say, ‘I never
realized that about abortion.'"
