Gallery owner attacked for Iraq abuse art

Leonard Bruce Olin

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May 29, 2004, 8:57:11 PM5/29/04

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Saturday, May 29, 2004 · Last updated 4:52 p.m. PT
Gallery owner attacked for Iraq abuse art
By LISA LEFF
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Prisoner%20Abuse%20Painting

SAN FRANCISCO -- A San Francisco gallery owner bears a painful reminder of
the nation's unresolved anguish over the incidents at the Abu Ghraib
prison - a black eye delivered by an unknown assailant who apparently
objected to a painting that depicts U.S. soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners.

The assault outside the Capobianco gallery in the city's North Beach
district Thursday night was the worst in a string of verbal and physical
attacks directed at Lori Haigh since the artwork was installed at her
gallery on May 16.

San Francisco police are investigating and have stepped up patrols around
the gallery. But Haigh decided to close the gallery indefinitely, citing
concern for the safety of her two children, ages 14 and 4, who often
accompanied her to work.

Guy Colwell's painting, titled "Abuse," depicts three U.S. soldiers leering
at a group of naked men in hoods with wires connected to their bodies. The
one in the foreground has a blood-spattered American flag patch on his
uniform. In the background, a soldier in sunglasses guards a blindfolded
woman.

The painting was part of a show of the Berkeley artist's work that mostly
featured pastel-colored abstracts.

Colwell stopped by the gallery Friday, but refused to discuss his work or
the reaction to it, saying only, "I'm sorry if this is putting pressure on
Lori."

Two days after the painting went up in a front window, someone threw eggs
and dumped trash on the doorstep. Haigh said she did not think to connect it
to the events at Baghdad's notorious prison until people started leaving
nasty messages and threats on her business answering machine.

"I think you need to get your gallery out of this neighborhood before you
get hurt," one caller said.

She removed the painting from the window, but the gallery's troubles
received news coverage and the criticism continued. The answering machine
recorded new calls from people accusing her of being a coward for moving the
artwork.

Last weekend, Haigh said a man walked into the gallery, pretended to
scrutinize the painting for a moment, then marched up to her desk and spat
in her face.

On Thursday, someone knocked on the door of the gallery, then punched Haigh
in the face when she stepped outside.

"This isn't art-politics central here at all," Haigh said. "I'm not here to
make a stand. I never set out to be a crusader or a political activist."

In closing the gallery, Haigh was forced to cancel an upcoming show
featuring counterculture artist Winston Smith.

For Haigh, who opened Capobianco a year and a half ago, having the chance to
work with prominent artists fulfilled a lifelong dream.

"I kept thinking someday I'll have enough of a reputation where I could
bring in my heroes of the art world, people like Guy Colwell especially,"
she said.

Haigh has received some expressions of support since closing the gallery.
Her favorite: an e-mail whose writer said, "I'm sure that a few and
dangerous minds don't understand that they have only mimicked the same
perversity this painting had expressed."

Miles Long

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May 29, 2004, 9:57:26 PM5/29/04

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Leonard Bruce Olin wrote:

America, The land of the free and home of the brave. Thank you GW for
bringing out the best in us.

Miles "Had Enough Yet?" Long

Message has been deleted

Hey Kool Aid

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May 29, 2004, 10:20:22 PM5/29/04

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I hope the trash that have violated this women civilrights
are found and put in jail were they belong.

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Edw

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May 30, 2004, 4:57:34 PM5/30/04

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"Miles Long" <Mi...@home.net> wrote in message
news:35c34$40b93fa3$4069ee8e$30...@msgid.meganewsservers.com...

Excellent point. There will always be cringing losers like the coward who
slugged the woman, but in better times, they can be shamed to silence.

Don Roncy Dumbass DemonRAT Richter

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Jun 1, 2004, 10:45:29 AM6/1/04

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>>>>http://slate.msn.com/id/2098642/

>>>http://tinyurl.com/2wr5y

>>honky Roncy the D.N.C dunce dumped:

>< i hate Bush, America and life itself because
>i'm such a coward. i love what the terrorists are
>doing to Bush, America and western civilization.
>i want my out-of-power party's power back. i'll
>do or say anything to get it back. because that's all
>i care about since i'm such a Chicken Little. >

www.loveourtroops.us

=

www.vhfcn.org/stat.htm

www.mishalov.com/vietnam_statistics.html

www.vietnamwall.org/pdf/casualty.pdf

www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/vm.html

www.dtic.mil/dpmo/pmsea/files.htm

Liberal or "Progressive" media bias

http://people-press.org/

http://www.mediaresearch.org/

http://www.bennett.com/archives/003459.html

http://www.chronwatch.com/editorial/2002-04-03c.asp