http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26163227-401,00.html
QUOTE
Artist creates 'The Rape Tunnel'
Says he will rape anyone who walks through
Police, feminist groups outraged
Richard Whitehurst, a Columbus-based artist, has constructed a 6.7 meter plywood tunnel opening onto a secret room to go on view at Columbus’ 4D Gallery on October 30th. He said for the duration of the gallery's opening, he will rape anyone who travels through the tunnel into that room.
"There is no way in or out of the project room except for this tunnel. As you travel through the tunnel, it gets smaller and smaller, making it so that you have to crawl and put yourself in a submissive position in order to reach the tunnel’s destination," Whitehurst said. "At the end of the tunnel the subject will find me waiting in the project room and I’ll try to the best of my ability to overpower and rape the person who crawls through."
It's not the first time Whitehurst has courted controversy. In 2007 he created an installation called the Punch You In The Face Tunnel. This time, he said, he wanted to have a greater impact.
"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.
"Rape seemed like the next logical step."
Says he will rape anyone who walks through
Police, feminist groups outraged
Richard Whitehurst, a Columbus-based artist, has constructed a 6.7 meter plywood tunnel opening onto a secret room to go on view at Columbus’ 4D Gallery on October 30th. He said for the duration of the gallery's opening, he will rape anyone who travels through the tunnel into that room.
"There is no way in or out of the project room except for this tunnel. As you travel through the tunnel, it gets smaller and smaller, making it so that you have to crawl and put yourself in a submissive position in order to reach the tunnel’s destination," Whitehurst said. "At the end of the tunnel the subject will find me waiting in the project room and I’ll try to the best of my ability to overpower and rape the person who crawls through."
It's not the first time Whitehurst has courted controversy. In 2007 he created an installation called the Punch You In The Face Tunnel. This time, he said, he wanted to have a greater impact.
"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.
"Rape seemed like the next logical step."
