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# Bay Area Hypocrisy: No Penance for Otterness, No Palestinian Art for Kids
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/bay-area-hypocrisy-otterness/
- Published: 2011-09-20T04:34:20.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:35:59.000Z
- Description: The Bay Area is full of artistic hypocrisy this month. On one side of the San Francisco Bay, two commissions by artist Tom Otterness are on hold because of a tasteless art video he did in the 1970s, and on the other side of the same bay, a Palestinian children's art show is cancelled because it piss
- Author: Hrag Vartanian
- Tags: Opinion, #image-position-hidden, Bay Area, Children, Oakland, Palestinian, San Francisco, Tom Otterness, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-11-17 09:23 (2009-2011)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/09/tom_otterness_large_sad_291.jpg)

Tom Otterness's "Large Sad Sphere" (nd) (via nycgovparks.org)

The Bay Area is full of artistic hypocrisy this month. On one side of the San Francisco Bay, [two commissions](http://blog.sfgate.com/cityinsider/2011/09/19/second-art-project-by-sculptor-who-shot-dog-on-hold/?ref=hyperallergic.com) by artist Tom Otterness are on hold because of a tasteless art video he did in the 1970s, and on the other side of the same bay, a Palestinian children’s art show is [cancelled](http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci%5F18918652?nclick%5Fcheck=1&ref=hyperallergic.com) because it pisses off a small faction of right-wing political activists.

So, what’s the takeaway in this? We can’t forgive an artist who was never charged with a crime and has apologized for the death of a dog, but we look the other way when children are trying to communicate the suffering they continue to endure at the hands of a foreign government?

Simply.Ridiculous.