Damn you racist marmosets!
The Gallery of the Absurd is a blog where the artist, called 14, draws celebrities to make fun of them.

Recently, she updated with a picture depicting Nicole Richie as a marmoset. Among her other celeb-animals are Lindsay Lohan the Red Panda, George Clooney the Gorilla, Paris Hilton the Proboscis monkey, and Angelina Jolie as a rhino with Brad Pitt as the little bird who pecks the flies away.


Most comments are the usual "LOLZ" and "She DOES look like a monkey!"

But wait! Nicole Richie is biracial, and "monkey" could be considered a racial slur. Urban Dictionary, you've let me down for the last time!



A Mouse Says: hi, i am wondering why you choose to make her a monkey? she really does not look like one and some may think you are being a racist since she is a biracial (racist pigs like to call blacks monkeys).

Ali: Ok now! If everything in your pictures symbolizes some aspect of the celebrity you are "making fun of,"...does that mean you are a racist? You have her as a monkey and she is biracial, half white, half black, and racists like to call blacks, MONKEYS.

Kai:Maybe she meant something, but I really doubt it. 14 did not make her look black at all.

Bea:If I wanted to comment on Nicole being bi-racial, I'd paint her as a zebra wearing big sunglasses and a dew rag, with a sidekick in one hand and a crack pipe in the other.

Normal:I agree with those who posted the "monkey" concern. It initially struck me as odd, too, that 14 chose to portray a multiracial person as monkey-like. Just a sensitive place to go.

Then the artist responds:

To those of you who have accused me of being a racist because I've chosen to paint Nicole Richie as a pymgy marmoset.... thanks for making me laugh! Here are the facts:

1. Not once while I was painting this did Nicole Richie's "race" ever cross my mind. I don't know what her race is, nor do I care. She is what she is.

2. The reason we chose to compare Nicole to a Pygmy Marmoset is because she's small, cute and has big eyes. PERIOD.

3. I've painted two caucasians as monkeys. George Clooney as a gorilla and Paris Hilton as a proboscis monkey. Where is the outcry there?

Don't all human beings, regardless of race, look a little like monkeys?

A comparison between the genomes of the common chimpanzee and the human shows that 98.77% of DNA base pairs of humans and chimpanzees are the same. A primate is any member of the biological order Primates, the group that contains all the species commonly related to the lemurs, monkeys, and apes, with the latter category including HUMANS.

If I want to paint someone looking like a monkey, then I will do so.

Thanks for your comments everyone.

xoxox
14


You'd think that would solve everything, right?

Normal:...I do think you need to be aware of and respect the power of certain artistic images/symbols. Shamefully, "monkey" is still a racial slur for people of color.

Another Mouse:14, this is the comment section and i am glad everyone has a chance to voice their concerns and opinions. also think that this is not a laughing matter, like a poster said; we still need to be sensitive to it.

I also think that your drawings are creative but you are still poking fun at people and how does this make you any better than a racist.

You say that you LOVE the celebs you paint, man, i am scarred to see how you would paint a celeb you HATE. But this is America and we have the right to speak, write, and act with the outmost liberty and I wish celebrities would unite and create a website that would give them the opportunity to critique sites (and works) like yours, dlisted, jossip, x17, perezhilton, and so on, this would be so good and it may put an end to sites like the ones I listed above.

Your no different than those other sites, you just know how to paint/draw....can't wait to see real creative art coming from you that doesn't rely on poking fun at others and continuing the maddening frenzy our culture is attracted to now of celebrity stalking!
(broken up from a text block of doom!)

14 responds again:


Ali, Ali, Ali...

I know nothing at all about any of the celebrities I paint. I speculate that most of them are nice people, but I wouldn't know since I've never met any of them. What I do know about is the gossip and rumor spread about them via gossip bloggers and tabloids. I see this gossip as a form of folktales and my interest is in observing and recording it. One day my focus will change, but for now this is the subject matter I have chosen for MY career. If you disapprove, so be it.

No, I've not spent time researching the racial makeup of Nicole Richie or any other person I've painted. Maybe I ought to look into that. What is the percentage of "black" a person may have before I'm not allowed to draw them as a marmoset? I need a threshold, please advise.

No, I refuse to embrace the tired memes defining "certain artistic images and symbols". Since you demand that I "need to be aware of and respect the power of certain artistic images/symbols", why don't you post a nice long list of all the symbols I'm not allowed to use in my work.

I enjoy poking fun at our pop culture and I enjoy making art from it. It might not fit your definition of art, so I suggest you look elsewhere for your art needs. Judging from your IP address, I can tell you visit my site quite often. I must be doing something right, heh?

xxoo
14

Normal:Um, wow. Why do you even have a comments section if you get so defensive when people criticize a piece of work? I think it's kind of absurd that if you're posting your work in public on the internet, and choosing to post my (not mean-spirited) comments, that you're then suggesting I leave since I offered one criticism, couched in praise.

For heaven's sake. You are making your living making art that makes fun of people. You may not want to be so sensitive.

But at your suggestion, I'll find art elsewhere, and you won't see this IP address again. xxoo, or whatever.

Demon Kitty: Oh to hell with all this PC crap, for all you motherfuckers know, she is probably ARYAN in every sense of the word!!! You bitches and your sanctimonious SHIT!!! Your fucking dogma and your self righteous crap from hell!!! Shove it, goddamn it!

PhlegmFatale:You know, normal & other race-baiting haters, if certain symbols such as "monkey" have power, it's because people like you keep the issue alive, because NO ONE BUT YOU thought there was a racist intent in that illustration.

An American in Canada:Psst to the anonymous person who wrote this. Actually, "this" is the internet, which is world-wide, sweets. I know Americans think it's all about Americans, and Americans have been fed the "we are the land of the free and we have soooooo much liberty/greatest country in the world" crap from the cradle, but please take a good long look at the current president before you get too self-congratulatory about "freedoms", 'K? Cuz seriously? It's getting scary down there.

Kai:Hm. Interesting. This is getting to be quite a fight. I would just like to say as a minority that we have a better sense of humor and don't get as offended as easily about things like this than the PC nuts judging everything. Meh, and judging and caring about Nicole's blackness seems a little weird. I don't know if she is part black, but if she is, she doesn't identify herself that way, so why do we care?

And by the way, the people accusing 14 of being racist, would you be this way if you didn't think she was white? Think about it...

Karl:

To the PC-crowd spouting the "images-have-power" foolishness:

1. Get a quarter.

2. Call your bank.

3. Take out a loan.

4. Buy a thicker skin and some backbone, both of which are *essential* for living in a free country.

I wore a uniform for several years, in order to protect free expression like this. I didn't do it to watch talented people censor themselves just to protect some bed-wetter's feelings.

It packs a punch.