Britney Spears is probably not the likeliest muse for a work of art promoting an anti-abortion message. Yet hard as it may be to imagine her inspiring such meditations, it is no stretch at all to imagine that a gallery show including a politically tinged likeness of Spears is apt to draw a bit of attention.
That appears to be the strategy, anyway, behind a life-size clay sculpture by a 40-year-old Connecticut artist, Daniel Edwards, that depicts Spears giving birth.
The sculpture titled, Monument to Pro-Life: The Birth of Sean Preston, depicts Spears on her knees and elbows giving birth atop a bearskin rug.
PHOTO: EPA
It will be shown publicly at an exhibition that is opening next Friday at Capla Kesting Fine Art gallery in Brooklyn.
When asked how he chose Spears as his subject from among the thousands of women who give birth each day, Edwards said: She's the highest profile. She was the best choice. I couldn't come up with anybody that matched her.
The clay sculpture is meant to represent the day last September when Spears gave birth to her son, Sean Preston Federline.
For the last week or so, blog-gers have been weighing in on the sculpture, with comments ranging from disapproval to disbelief, with some calling it all a publicity ploy.
An anti-abortion group whose literature will be included at the opening has backed away from the work, and the gallery holding the opening has been flooded with messages, pro and con, remarking on the sculpture.
Edwards said he did not speak with Spears before creating the sculpture. Leslie Sloan Zelnik, a spokeswoman for Spears, did not return a call on Wednesday seeking comment.
Edwards resisted characterizing himself as anti-abortion, but said he believed that life began "at conception."
The sculptor said that the image of Spears giving birth was a beautiful way to present the anti-abortion message, in contrast to the grisly images like fetuses in jars that are sometimes used by anti-abortion groups.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘POINT OF NO RETURN’: The Caribbean nation needs increased international funding and support for a multinational force to help police tackle expanding gang violence The top UN official in Haiti on Monday sounded an alarm to the UN Security Council that escalating gang violence is liable to lead the Caribbean nation to “a point of no return.” Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Haiti Maria Isabel Salvador said that “Haiti could face total chaos” without increased funding and support for the operation of the Kenya-led multinational force helping Haiti’s police to tackle the gangs’ expanding violence into areas beyond the capital, Port-Au-Prince. Most recently, gangs seized the city of Mirebalais in central Haiti, and during the attack more than 500 prisoners were freed, she said.
DEMONSTRATIONS: A protester said although she would normally sit back and wait for the next election, she cannot do it this time, adding that ‘we’ve lost too much already’ Thousands of protesters rallied on Saturday in New York, Washington and other cities across the US for a second major round of demonstrations against US President Donald Trump and his hard-line policies. In New York, people gathered outside the city’s main library carrying signs targeting the US president with slogans such as: “No Kings in America” and “Resist Tyranny.” Many took aim at Trump’s deportations of undocumented migrants, chanting: “No ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], no fear, immigrants are welcome here.” In Washington, protesters voiced concern that Trump was threatening long-respected constitutional norms, including the right to due process. The
RSS