Jun 2, 2005

jody folkedahl

Everybody wants to read up on Jody Folkedahl, the artist who painted a nude female in a pornographic pose and named it after her art professor. It's my top search term, and it doesn't hurt that, inexplicably, I'm third-ranked on Google.

I thought art-as-provocation was so passé, so Andres Serrano. Wrong. I also thought the painting might be of her art professor. Wrong again. Finally, I thought I'd never blog about Jody Folkedahl a second time. Wrong on all counts.

Jody, if you're out there reading this, drop a line. I'm curious how you're handling the furor. Did you ever expect national attention? In all seriousness, how would you go about topping this one?

Update: Read my exchange with a friend of Jody's here.

Second update: Jody has graciously answered the questions in the comments to this post.


[nineteenth in a series]

1 comment:

Jim Anderson said...

Jody,

Thanks for coming by, and for your candid answers. The response to your work reminds me of the controversy surrounding Tim O'Brien and his Vietnam War "memoir," The Things They Carried. Its narrator is named Tim O'Brien; readers often mistake it for a true story, and are angry when they learn it's 95% made up. People want to keep fact and fiction safely distant, especially when collapsing the distinction is painfully personal.

I, too, have been soul-searching about the "blogger's responsibility," since I never imagined that linking to a seemingly trivial news item would lead to the person in question showing up to discuss the hoopla. Such is the strange and exciting world we live in.

I may take you up on your offer to extrapolate. No matter what, best wishes in all your artistic endeavors.