Yes, I'm fully aware of that statement. Damien Hirst said a similar thing too. Both were moronic and ignorant remarks, and thankfully both distanced themselves from their words later on. I would encourage you to do the same.
The problem again, as we've run into countless times in the last month or so with recent forum discussions, is the casual bandying around of loaded and highly reductive words like "extreme", "shocking" and - perhaps the most divided term of them all - "art", when justifying awful actions, opinions or motives committed by persons who aren't right in their mind or judgment. And we're never going to reach a conclusive answer, as said words have been corrupted so much overtime into sensational stereotypes that they are near-useless, precisely because they have been used repeatedly as a measure for prior awful actions, opinions or motives committed by similar dysfunctional people. You only need to mention concepts like "modern art" to your average everyman for them to bring up ghastly associations of it with soiled unmade beds or piles of rubbish in an art gallery setting (which through such an association apparently elevates it to something deserving of respect and attention), be it out of ignorance or media programming. And even though I could waffle on tirelessly too about the merits of Tracey Emin, Gustav Metzger or any other cause célèbre or iconoclast, who am I to correct your average Joe/Joanne when such ideas have been reinforced to the point of them becoming lowest common denominators?
Personally I would much rather seek out the greater moral good in people rather than their lowest points, even if not the fashionable thing to do in these current times. Thus, I would rather regard Stockhausen by his musical compositions than his ill-informed 9/11 outbursts, much as I would rather uphold the victims of 9/11 by the lives they had lived than their untimely demises at the hands of terrorists. Then again, numerous critics or theorists of a bombastic nature might also assert that Stockhausen or Cage or whoever's progressive/regressive approach to music was a tragedy on an equal scale for the later developments they inspired. No need to name names and go on any further with this tired topic, as yet again we're already missing the point of this thread... so I suggest we both step away from the computer and go outside for a change. It's quite sunny where I am here in the UK.
