Wayne Polak had no idea his depiction of the stations of the cross would raise such a ruckus.
“This is so bizarre and ironic because I don’t consider myself a religious artist–I don’t even go to church anymore,” says Polak. “I certainly never expected my work to generate opposition, particularly by atheists. Everyone’s putting emphasis on the religious aspect of the piece and they’re overlooking its artistic merit. Once you have a religious theme does that mean it’s no longer artistic? If it’s religious can it be art?”
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The work wasn’t even intended to be displayed outside a church, says Polak. It was first displayed last year at the Randolph Street Gallery.
The signs went up on Sunday, February 26. “No one complained,” says Mason. “It was just the opposite–they resonated with people. Middle-class people who might be the type to protest against art really liked it. A woman came in from the suburbs to see it.”
Actually, the protests came from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc., which is based in Madison, Wisconsin. “The press tends to call us atheists but that isn’t accurate,” says Anne Nicol Gaylor, the foundation’s president. “We are freethinkers, which is a lovely old word used for unbelievers, atheists, agnostics, skeptics, rationalists, and secularists.”
Polak and Mason say the signs violate no constitutional prohibitions because they make no attempt to proselytize. “It’s near a church, but it’s not encouraging someone to follow a certain religion,” says Mason. “Does a religious content obviate artistic merit? Can you not explore religious themes anymore? If that’s so, should the Art Institute take down its copy of El Greco’s Assumption because it has a religious theme and it’s hanging in a museum that’s on public land and which receives public funds? What about the religious Native American artifacts and all the vestments and liturgical implements on display in the Art Institute? Is it a case where, as Andre Malraux said, if you put something in a museum it’s dead, but if you put them near a church it’s living? Are they saying we can’t have those Easter processions in Pilsen where Christ is carried through the public streets? It gets ridiculous after a while.”
On Friday, March 10, the city ordered the church to move the signs off the sidewalk. Mason asked for a brief delay, arguing that the church didn’t have the proper equipment to unbolt the signposts from the sidewalk. But on Monday, March 13, a city work crew came and hauled the signs away.
