So....the "Rape Tunnel"

[stpauler]

I’m going to quote the article out of its sequence and go via the timeline

… I had my first breakthrough with an installation that was to be the prototype for this current one. It was called THE PUNCH-YOU-IN-THE-FACE TUNNEL…at the end of the tunnel I’d punch the subject in the face …

As it turns out, I ended up breaking the nose of the third person to crawl through the tunnel, an aspiring model. She went to the hospital and eventually sued me. Her modeling career was put on hold. The civil case was long and drawn out and the matter still hasn’t been resolved. To this day she still has unpaid medical bills. The point of this long aside is that all this took place two years ago, and I’m still having an impact on this young lady’s life, something not many other artists could claim about their work.

Obviously, there’s room to grow then:

In fact, his new controversial work, THE RAPE TUNNEL, which is set to go on view at Columbus’ 4D Gallery on October 30th, has come under fire from Columbus-based feminist groups not to mention, local law enforcement officials. The artist plans to place himself in a room, the only entrance or exit being a 22 ft long plywood tunnel constructed by Whitehurst himself. Then he says that for the duration of the gallery’s opening (from 7:00 p.m. to midnight) he will rape anyone who travels through the tunnel into that room.

I have to admit, part of me is mentally tickled that someone has the, umm, balls to do this. Modern art has gotten a bit stale, but is this going too far? I would guess that since you know what you’re getting into, it’s a bit consensual…assuming the art patron is indeed of mental and physical maturity. There’s more at the article as I’m a bit speechless about it.

[Maserschmidt]

Are you pro-rape?

Not really. I personally think rape is morally reprehensible and something that should generally not be allowed in our society. Most people feel this way, which is why the act is exploitable for the purposes of my work. If people were not so repulsed by rape then this project would fail.

“Not really”? Maybe partially then? 90%? “Generally” not allowed?

Sweet.

[lissener]

He’s got you talking about it; he’s got lots of people talking about it. Talking about rape, about art, about many different tangents off the main discussion. In other words, he’s succeeded.

Since he’s publicized what he’d do to anyone who crawls through the tunnel, how likely is it that someone would do so?

But if someone does so, just to call his bluff, it will be interesting to see what happens. He’s definitely succeeded in having all possible attention on him for that time period.

[stpauler]

Nevermind,I’m an idiot.

By publishing The Rape Tunnel our intention was to spark conversation on the state of art for a few hours with coverage of an entirely fake art project…

…When the author of The Rape Tunnel pitched the idea to us we loved it. Of course it’s an extremely sensitive subject, but our motivation for publishing the piece was to comment on contemporary art, not rape.

We cannot say what the intentions of the author were, but ours were simple: to generate conversation on the state of contemporary art based on the fact that an event like this is no so unrealistic today. So we edited the piece like we would any other and published it.

[Darth_Sensitive]

I think people crawling through would really have problems getting through the banks of straws that ensure laminar flow at the middle.

Awesome troll is awesome.

[El_Kabong]

I once knew a German artist who did something I thought was kind of funny, although without (IMO) much deeper meaning:

He set up a coin-operated photo booth at a gallery in Paris. A sign explained that there was an identical booth in another gallery in Tokyo. When you put a coin in the booth in Paris, the lights would flash, and a few minutes later a strip of photos would come out…of a Japanese person. Presumably the opposite was happening at the booth in Tokyo.

Most people’s assumption, of course, was that the photo you received had been taken in the other booth by whoever happened to be there at the time and transmitted digitally to the other one. Of course, the actuality was much simpler; the machine was pre-loaded with photos of random Japanese people. In fact, I’m pretty sure there was never any booth in Tokyo at all.

[astro]

Golly… and you would think that someone would have heard of the “THE PUNCH-YOU-IN-THE-FACE TUNNEL” incident in that it’s the kind of story that would have been plastered over the national media, but… there’s nothing.

My favorite art hoax.

[Slithy_Tove]

Do I get my money back if it only turns out to be the Women Laughing at the Artist’s Flaccid Penis Tunnel?

[astro]

@Slithy_Tove

Do I get my money back if it only turns out to be the Women Laughing at the Artist’s Flaccid Penis Tunnel?

I’m pretty sure it’ll be some kind of scenario where he stamps your rear end with “YOU’VE BEEN RAPED!” and you’re supposed to discuss how it makes you feel over wine and crackers afterward to have your fat ass wedged in a tunnel with an art hoaxer stamping your proffered rear and.

And if he did go all the way and cut open your clothes and rammed a greased up jelly dong into your terrified anal pucker it’d be kind of hard to complain about the “rape” because after all, you knowingly went into a dark tunnel where you knew you would be trapped and there would be a tunnel rapist. In a sense you were “asking for it” re a ferocious anal assault. Would your cut up clothes and throbbing sphincter now be part of the artscape?

[Green_Bean]

“Rape seemed like the next logical step.”

[Mister_Rik]

gasp! What if a … a child wandered into the tunnel!!!

Won’t somebody think of the children?!

Sorry, somebody had to do it.

[Kamino_Neko]

@lissener

But if someone does so, just to call his bluff, it will be interesting to see what happens.

I’d do it, just to see if he followed through, and just how he intended to do it.

[ToeJam]

That article is filled with so many bad ass quotes. I’d expect it of a Tarantino or a Rodriguez movie more so… I can just picture these lines being said by like a Hannibal lector sort of anti-hero just waiting for his time to come.

What if a police officer crawls through the tunnel?*
Then I will probably go to jail. But before that I’ll try my very best to sexually assault him or her.
*

[ToeJam]

And actually my first though was- I’d be worried- what if someone with HIV or an STD deliberately went through the tunnel?
Still. Amusing Hoax article that did it’s job.

[Ring]

I would guess is there were such a place a couple of bruiser feminists would go through and kick the shit out of him. If he filmed it I would bet it’d be worth some bucks. I know I’d pay to see it.

[GameHat]

@Darth_Sensitive

I think people crawling through would really have problems getting through the banks of straws that ensure laminar flow at the middle.

You get 100 points for referencing Laminar Flow in a thread about a (fake) “rape tunnel”.

How does one calculate the Reynolds Number of a terrified woman?

[Tristan]

@GameHat

You get 100 points for referencing Laminar Flow in a thread about a (fake) “rape tunnel”.

Probably inspired by the pic in the article, which is of a windtunnel. heheh

[The_Controvert]

The sign to the exhibit could be made to switch the middle E to a Y and back.

[Anaamika]

I got kind of stuck on the Punch You In The Face Tunnel (honestly? Who would actually crawl through such a thing and then sue?) so I didn’t even have time to be horrified over the rape tunnel before I realized it was fake.

Oh well.

[Zebra]

Now if I did this art installation, I would have an actress go in the tunnel, stand in the room screaming for help or begging for me to stop, then leave the room in tattered clothing.
See what sort of conversation about modern art that would provoke.