Upside-Down Church Controversy

A sculpture of a church standing upside-down on its steeple, by artist Dennis Oppenheim, was refused by both New York City and Stanford University over concerns that it was blasphemous and/or insensitive.

The piece, called Device to Root Out Evil, finally settled in a Vancouver park in 2006. But after “too many negative comments” the Vancouver Park Board is taking it down too.

Oppenheim says the piece isn’t meant to be blasphemous but you can see how one might take it the wrong way. Besides, cities have limited space for public art and there’s plenty of great sculpture—why choose a divisive piece if you don’t have to?

So we put it to you:

Via C-Monster.