by Mabon Dane

Created on: October 29, 2007

An artist in Sweden used Muslims to boost a poor artistic reputation as he copied a trend set by previous individuals intended to provoke Muslim anger through cartoons that depicted the Prophet Mohammed in a derogatory fashion. The artist is Lars Vilks known for building sculptures in the middle of roundabouts or in places likely to upset the authorities.

The sculptures with names such as Nimis (too much) or Aix (Fortress) are little more than jumbled mountains of wood and stone that are huge but without any form or purpose. The Vilks sculptures have resulted in clashes between Vilks and the Swedish authorities who wish to demolish them as Vilks builds them in unsuitable places often without permission. After the sculptures are built a lengthy battle follows between Vilks and the authorities who seek to remove them that involves appeals and court battles in which Vilkes seeks publicity and support from other artists. Vilks has pulled off some extraordinary publicity moves to protect his sculptures even to the point that he declared the creation of an independent state called Ladonia.

Lars Vilks is also one of the more well known members of a movement in Sweden who puts sculptures of dogs made of rubbish and wood on roundabouts during the night without permission.

The latest project by Vilks was targeted at Muslims by portraying the Prophet Mohammed as a dog on a roundabout in a series of crude somewhat childish pencil drawings. The Vilks pictures are of the sort that a small child would draw, bland cartoons lacking wit or humour.

Art galleries rejected the Vilks cartoons and his cartoons would have remained forgotten had it not been for a Swedish newspaper Nerikes Allehanda who followed the trend set by newspapers in Denmark to attack the Prophet Mohammed in cartoons the previous year and published a Vilks cartoon. Islamic groups reacted to the cartoon and another international controversy erupted with several Islamic countries protesting to Sweden and Vilks had to get police protection from death threats. Several other Swedish newspapers published the Vilks cartoons in protest at what they considered an infringement on freedom of press.

If I went up to the Swedish monarch and punched them in the face a lot of Swedes would be upset and I would be punished; this is the equivalent of what Vilks and the Swedish newspapers have done to Muslims with these cartoons and they are rightly upset. Artists morally have the right to freedom of expression and the newspapers the right of freedom of press, as longs they do not hurt innocent people in their actions, both Vilks and the Swedish media lost their moral right through these Vilks cartoons. There is no justification or improvement in our unhappy world to upset over a billion human beings by portraying a person they hold in high regard as a dog on a roundabout. Artists and the media should ask themselves why they need to contribute further to conflict and misery around the world through their actions. I look forward to the day when artists and the media will create works of art and literature that promotes peace and love between human beings.

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