School of Humans. Today, we're starting the show with a churning vat of pists. That's right, philth Head's piss. It's foemen at the top, swirling and swishing. The color of a crisp pale ale just poured from the tap, which is not a healthy color for your piss to be. Whoever pissed this piss was extremely dehydrated. Was it me? Could have been? I only drink a spoonful of water every day. I am perpetually dehydrated to prepare myself for the water wars to come. I don't even need water.
But actually, no, it's not my piss. This piss belongs to Andres Serrano. He's a photographer and heat into this vat of piss to make what some people would call art. But don't worry, it's not just a vat of piss. No. Indeed, submerged inside of it, floating amid the bubbles, bobbing in the brine is a small white, plastic and wood figurine of Jesus on the crucifix. Serrano set this scene up and sometime in the nineteen eighties snapped a photograph of
this crucifix suspended in his urine. And now, if you saw this photograph in the gallery just willy nilly, you might not even know that it was necessarily in piss. But don't worry. Serrano titles the piece very explicitly. It's called immersion parentheses piss Christ for yes, indeed, the Christ is immersed in piss. And while this image, if you can imagine, really piss some people off, but I'm kissed.
That's right. Today we're talking about the arts, and specifically artists who use bodily fluids in other matter aka feces and their work and how people really hated that shit. But don't kiss sorry. Cue the beautiful theme song. This is American Filth. I'm your host, Gabby Watts. Each week I tell you a filthy story from American history. This week's episode Jesus p Christ. The pea stands for piss.
I will say as a precursor to this episode, I am very skeptical of all fine arts because my sister is a fine arts photographer and also performance art, and I've seen too many performance art pieces to really take it seriously. Okay, if you guys an't know what performance art is, it's very similar to the experience of when a child is like, oh I made a play, come watch it, and you watch it and there's no story, and really, wear's the razzle dazzle. Oh that's it. Okay, anyway,
that's what it's like. But I'm going to try to be really intellectual about this and really take it all very seriously. So let me try to get into my intellectual artist's voice. M Andres Serrano, what's coming up in the art world in New York City in the nineteen eighty I'm just kidding. I'm not going to do that. So Andre Serrano, he was coming up in the art world in New York City. He was finally getting some
notoriety in the nineteen eighties. At the time, New York City was racous and dirty, some might even say filthy, and filled to the rim with artists questioning the status quo. There's a lot of cool things going on. Andy Warhol's studio aka the Factory was where all the cool kids would hang out. Lou Reid and the Vellet Underground, Debbie Harry of Blondie, everyone who was Nito Burrito, and Andre Serrano. He wasn't the only one who was using piss and
other bodily fluids in his art. Andy Warhol himself in the late seventies released a series of images called Oxidation, Piss and Come, where he basically spread copper on canvas and then had his assistance piss and or come on said canvas. Sometimes they were just pissing and coming right on the canvas. Other times Warhol would dribble the substance where he wanted it to be on the canvas. And also these assistants, all of them were people who he
hired from the local gay bathhouses. One of Warhol's favorites was his friend Ronnie Catrone because, quote, he takes a lot of Vitamin B, so the canvas turns a really pretty color when it's his piss end quote. Art is profound. Now let's cue some music where I can do a little art critique. Okay, let's take a moment to reflect on the meaning of Andy Warhol's Piss and Come work. I think the meaning is that sometimes you be pissing
and sometimes you be common. I'm a philosopher. Another artist using bodily fluids was the great Cuban artist Anna Mendieta. She made art with blood and yes, of course sometimes she used period blood. That's the whole point of having a period, though less exciting like sometimes she would just use blood from her veins and other times just corn syrups staged in a public place to look like blood.
Like in one of her works from the nineteen seventies, she created an enormous puddle of blood just soaking the sidewalk. It looks like it's floating out of a white door, pulling on the concrete before running down into the gutter. And the whole point of it was to be like, how are people going to respond to this blood on the sidewalk? Many people just walked right past it, distracted or simply unfazed. Some got curious about it and poked
the blood before moving on. Anna and her sister sat in a car across the street, watching until finally a shop owner emerges from the next door and sprays down the sidewalk with a hose, mopping the blood into the gutter, destroying all evidence of what might have happened there. But isn't that the h rustle and grind. It's just another day on the job mopping away all this blood on the sidewalk. And now back to Serrano, who made piss Christ. Piss Christ wasn't his first piece at the intersection of
Christianity and bodily fluids. In nineteen eighty five, two years before piss Christ was exhibited, he made a piece called Blood Cross. It's a photograph of a cross made out of plexiglass and it's filled to the brim with cow's blood. Wow. He's so good at giving precise titles to his work. Because it was blood in a cross. Crazy. Also, there was so much blood inside of it. It looked like it was like leaking blood. And it appeared in a
series he made called Fluids. Because that's not all. He also exhibited an aptly named print called Milk and Blood because it is in fact made of milk and blood in piss Christ. It was also part of a larger series exhibited in nineteen eighty seven. Not only was Christ submerged in urine, he also had some photographs of other religious figurines submerged in his other favorite fluids like blood, seamen, and milk. Honestly, flem, sweat, and bile probably felt pretty
left out. But despite this vast collection of fluid works, it's piss Christ that set off behaters. What happened was that Piss Christ was exhibited at the Southern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston Salem, North Carolina, and there it won the Visual Arts Competition, which meant that he won a fifteen thousand dollars cash prize from the National Endowment for the Arts the NAA, and the NEA is a government agency, so the grant tech was funded by American
tax dollars. The American Family Association, originally called the National Federation for Decency, formed in nineteen seventy seven, was an organization that was still getting its sea legs and latched onto these artists like Serrano who were making seemingly blasphemous arts. They're like, we don't want our tax dollars going to piss art. That is so anti Christian. Reverend Donald Wildman, founder of the Mississippi Chapter, complained he held a goddang
press conference to yell about works like Piss Christ. He said, quote, this is anti Christian bigotry. And this is kind of interesting because Serrano actually identifies as a Christian and said this about his work in a Vice article, quote I had no idea Pis Christ would get the attention it did, since I meant either blasphemy nor offense by it. I've been a Catholic all my life, so I am a follower of Christ. But I'm an artist, and the role of the artist is to break new ground for himself
and for his audience. End quote right right, right, right, right right. I'm sure he had no idea that submerging a crucifix in urine would make anyone mad? How could it? Anyway, back to Reverend Donald Wildman. His complaints ended up making it to the Senate floor, and six senators publicly denounced Serrano's work. Al Demato, a Republican senator from New York, was one of the people who hopped on the bandwagon
against Serrano's work. He made a little speech about it on the Senate floor, and he said, what a disgrace multiple times. Here's some of the stuff he was saying about the complaints he's been getting about Pissed Christ and other pieces of art. Quote. They said, how dare you spend our taxpayer's money on this trash? They all objected to taxpayers money being used for a piece of so called artwork, which, to be quite candid, I am somewhat reluctant to utter its title. This so called piece of
art is a deplorable, despicable display vulgarity. If this is what contemporary art has sunk to this level, this outrage, this indignity. Some may want to sanction that, and that is fine, but not with the use of taxpayers money. This is not a question of free speech. This is a question of abuse of taxpayers money. Taxpayer's money. Another senator objecting to the art was Jesse Helms of North Carolina.
He notably opposed civil rights, disability rights, environmentalism, feminism, gate rights, affirmative action, access to abortion, and he saw the NEA as a proponent of all those things. He said about Serrano, quote, I do not know miss s Andres Serrano, and I hope I never meet him, because he is not an artist. He is a jerk. Let us examine exactly what this bird did to get fifteen thousand dollars of the taxpayer's money through the so called National Endowment for the Arts.
I mean, that's literally what's called so I don't know why I said so called. If they have no more judgment than that, it ought to be abolished and all funds returned to the taxpayer. What this Serrano fellow did. He filled a bottle with his own urine and then stuck a crucifix down there, Jesus Christ on a cross. He set it up on a table and took a picture of it. For that, the National Endowment for the Arts gave him fifteen thousand dollars to honor him as
an artist. I say again, he is not an artist. He is a jerk, and he is taunting the American people just as others are in terms of Christianity. And I resent that. And I do not hesitate test A, soh yuall, don't hesitate, Senator Helms go on. By the end of the eighties, piss Christ wasn't the only piece of art rufflin' some big conservative feathers. It was just one part of a larger culture war, because there were plenty of other artists not only using pists in Christ
in their works, but also gays and sex. Oh God, more on that after the break. Now, I understand that doing a history podcast that is set in the nineteen eighties might be an insult to some of you people who were like born in the eighties. I mean, I was born in like ninety one. Don't tell Hollywood that I'm only eighteen. But it's still history. Your life is history. I know that's sad, that's depressing, but you're all as fuck. I'm sorry about that. So yeah, back to the eighties.
One of the most important artists of the nineteen eighties in New York was photographer Robert Maplethorpe. Maplethorpe attended the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where he met and dated the great Patty Smith. Eventually they moved into a room at the Chelsea Hotel, where a staggering amount of artists resided like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Milos Foreman, Stanley Kubrig, Jim Morrison, Iggy Pop, Leonard Cohen. Robert began photographing his large network
of artists friends and eventually started dating only men. He and Patty remained great friends, though, and he also happened to be into some very kinky shit and often found himself at the Mine Shaft club in the Meatpacking District. And oh boy, were they back in some meat. Mine Shaft was an underground gay BDSM club that opened in late seventies and would only operate for eight years or so.
The building was unmarked. The entrance of the club lay behind a grimy, industrial metal door that could only be opened from the inside. Patrons had to climb a flight of stairs and pass a bouncer who would turn away anyone who wore cologne or looked too preppy. The place was initially one story, complete with a scat room. Yep, that's a room where you could indulge and arousal from feces if that was your thing. This particular room, though,
was short lived because it got pretty unsanitary. I wonder why. Eventually the club expanded and they had all sorts of activities you could do there. They had different sort of sets in stages, you know, things that like jail cells, the back of a truck, dungeons, and then there was a room that was completely dark save for some bathtubs that were just flooded in spotlights. Well what happened there is men would sit in them and then the other
dudes around them would just piss on them. So yeah, they had everything, slings and swings, glory holes, tubs of crisco all around. Chrisco was a popular choice before the advent of personal lubricants. Basically, it was a frickin' good time and Robert Maplethorp was inspired. He would bring men home from his nightly sex capades and photograph them, sometimes just simple nudes, and other times in various sexual scenes.
In one of Robert Mablethorpe's self portraits, he stands with his back to the camera in a leather vest and assless leather chaps and boots. His left foot is up on a pedestal and he's hunched over as his right hand reaches around grabbing a handle of a bull whip that is being pulled out of his asshole. Ow wow wow wow wow wow. Of course, lays through this era of sexual liberation was the dark shadow of an epidemic. The outbreak of AIDS in nineteen eighty one would wreak
havoc on the United States. While so many people were dying across the country, the Reagan administration was doing nothing, in fact, just making it worse. In the eighties, Reagan made major budget cuts to national health organizations, including the CDC. Reagan didn't even utter the word AIDS until nineteen eighty five, and didn't acknowledge its severity until nineteen eighty seven, when
the death toll had already surpassed twenty thousand people. Robert Maplethorpe was diagnosed with HIV in nineteen eighty six, and the more intimate he became with his mortality, the more ambitious he became to leave a legacy, and in nineteen eighty eight, the Wedding Museum hosted a retrospective, a very rare honor for a photographer at the time. He also put together a show called The Perfect Moment, a collection of one hundred and fifty photographs that was going to
tour around the country. The exhibit was extremely popular wherever it went, long lines formed outside the premieres. This amount of notoriety for photographs of gay sex. Whow. This also made all those conservative senators really pissed off. They're like, dang, our tax dollars are funding museums and grants and all this other stuff, and then they're just making pictures of anal sex. I don't like that at all. Another big anti National Endowment for the Arts proponent was Congressman Dick Army.
I mean, that's kind of funny because his name's like Dick arm He sent a letter signed by one hundred and seven other representatives calling to cancel the Maplethorpe show. In DC. He called his work quote morally reprehensible, trash. I mean, I honestly feel like gay sex photos totally chill. But he did, you know, he did have a few pieces where you could say they were child pornography, which
that's this a little sus not really good. But there's a whole other, like art critique that there's a whole thing, there's a whole debate about that anyway. So maple Thorpe's on the shit list, Serrano's on the shit list. But then they all started going after other art pieces, even art pieces that didn't even feature piss or com or pornography. Dred Scott Tyler, a student in Chicago, put up an installation piece at the Art Institute. It's called What's the
right Way to Display an American Flag? And in it, an actual American flag lays on the ground. It's an interactive piece. There's a little book where you're supposed to write the answer to that question. But in order to get to the book, you have to actually step on the flag. That's right. You got to put your little foot seas on the flag. And that's what made some people real mad, especially Senator Jesse Helms. The one who hates all the stuff. The Senate unanimously voted that Tyler
committed a federal crime with his American flag installation. The institute was marched on by veterans, and the museum received a bomb threat. The Governor of Illinois reluctantly signed a bill cutting off grants to both the school and the Illinois Arts Alliance, an arts advocacy group that defended the exhibit. The Cochran Museum in DC wanted to stay out of the fight and potentially diffuse the whole NEA situation, so they canceled the Maplethorpe show, and this was the last
straw for the other side. Artists and LGBT activists marched outside the museum and even projected images of Maplethorpe's self portraits and even some of his censored works on the facade of the building. After that happened, the museum's director issued a formal apology. It said, quote the Cochrane Gallery of Art, in attempting to fuse the NEA funding controversy by removing itself from the political spotlight, has instead found itself in the center of controversy by withdrawing from the
Maplethorpe exhibition. We the board of trustees, and the director have inadvertently offended many members of the arts community, which we deeply regret. Our course in the future will be to support art, artists and freedom of expression end quote. And the thing is that the NEA was also trying to fight back against all of this anti artist sentiment.
Like in June nineteen eighty nine, the House Interior Appropriation Subcommittee, they issued a bill with an amendment that would require grant urs to receive approval from the NEA before awarding monetary grants, basically being like, whoever's awarding the grants, they got to get permission to make sure, you know, the artists they're trying to give money to isn't producing you know,
reprehensible trash or whatever. And then a month later, NEA Chairman Hugh Southern released a statement asserting that a govern an agency is quote expressly forbidden in its authorizing legislation from interfering with the artistic choices made by its grantees, basically being like, fuck you guys, that's stupid. But then a few months after that, Congress came back, doubled down,
and they passed the NEA's nineteen ninety Appropriations Bill. The bill denied funding for projects that quote produce materials which, in the judgment of the NEA, may be considered obscene, including but not limited to, depictions of sadomasochism, homo eroticism, the sexual exploitation of children, individuals engaged in sex acts, and which do not have serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. Though to be honest, I do feel like
homoroticism has a lot of scientific value. And then the bill also authorized the budget to create a twelve member commission to review the NEA grant making policy, basically just to be like, h we're gonna tell you what to do now. Brah Maplethorpe died of AIDS nineteen eighty nine, And despite these setbacks against the artists community, Is the
Perfect Moment continued to tour, premiering again in Cincinnati. This resulted in an unsuccessful persecution of the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center and its director, who are accused of handering obscenity. So what happened to everyone else? While Senator Helms and the other Conservative senators they continued their crusade against the arts. He started going after independent theater companies and arts organizations
throughout the country. Meanwhile, the American Family Association that sort of started this whole mess, they're still trying to get the NEA defunded completely. What fun folks, And technically they are a hate group designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Andre Serrano, his career was basically launched by this scandal. In December of nineteen eighty nine, his solo gallery show was an enormous success, and he continued to use all sorts of blood and guts in his work.
In nineteen ninety he exhibited his piece Blood and Seamen five, made of you guessed it, Blood and Seamen and Piss Christ continues to piss people off. In twenty eleven, it was on view in Avignon, France, and it was vandalized. Rocks were thrown at it, which cracked the glass and nearly destroyed the photo. But actually earlier this year, in summer twenty twenty three, Serrano was actually invited to go
hang out with the Pope. He and a number of other artists were invited to the Sistine Chapel and apparently while he was there, Pope Francis gave Serrano a thumbs up Serrano said, I was surprised to be invited and even more surprised that he gave me a thumbs up, and I was very happy that the church understands that I am a Christian artist and I am not a
blasphemous artist. I'm just an artist. Every episode of American Filth us a lesson, and I think the lesson we can learn here is that you know, sometimes your tax dollars aren't gonna go where you want them. But from now on, I'm going to write a personal letter to the irs every time I file my taxes that says I want my money to exclusively go to art made from piss. Thanks for listening. American Field is a production
of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. This episode was hosted in sound designed by Me Gabby Wants and written by Julia Chris Gao. Theme music is by me and Jesse Niswanger. Our senior producer is Amelia Brock, and our executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Random Barr and Elsie Crowley. You can follow along with the show on Instagram at American filth Pod. Be sure to subscribe and review. Leave us five stars. Why not talk about you? Next time School of humans