[Xanthe]

Personally, I am offended when my particular religious icons are desecrated by those who don't share my beliefs. But a lot of the times the basis for my offense is not that the artist is making a sincere statement of their beliefs, it is because they are using the icons as a cheap target for quick publicity. It's really easy to throw shit on a statue of the BVM and call it "art" and then pretend to be all outraged and/or saddened when people react negatively (or violently) to it. I don't mind being offended, if what I am offended by makes me question the reason I feel offended and gives me a better understanding of how my religion appears to others.

Using that example, and knowing who the statue of Mary is supposed to represent, throwing shit on it makes no sense. Now, if the artist was protesting against things that have been done in history under the banner of Mary by people who obviously never understood what she represented, then his target of Mary again makes no sense and is again just a cheap shot because he (or she) is apparently unable to artistically render the true target of his/her ire - namely the humans who carried out outrages (as determined by the artist) in Her name. By using the statue of Mary as the centerpiece of his art, he instead shows the limitations of his imagination and his failure to be truly "an artist".

Cheap shots that only make you react and not think are the work of poseurs, not artists, IMO.