Because there haven’t been enough responses already to the celeb nude photo leak, a Los Angeles street artist has now announced that he will add the hacked photos of Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton to his upcoming show.
E! Online reports that the artist, known as XVALA, plans to print life-sized reproductions of the photos on canvas for his “No Delete” show at CACA’s The Showroom in St. Petersburg, Florida. According to the report, XVALA has been amassing “compromised” images of celebrities over the course of the past seven years as part of his “Fear Google” campaign, which appeared in public areas throughout Los Angeles and is meant to explore the loss of privacy in a world where every action leaves a digital footprint.
XVALA reportedly explained his decision by saying, “In today’s culture, everybody wants to know everything about everybody. An individual’s privacy has become everyone else’s business. It has become cash for cache.”
Publicist Cory Allen issued a statement commending XVALA’s work for helping to “strengthen the ongoing debate over privacy in the digital era” — because being complicit in the violation and abuse of these women is totally about contributing to a cultural dialogue, and not at all about profiting from a sex crime.
The show is slated to open October 30, which means that it may or may not actually happen, considering that the photos are now officially evidence in a federal criminal investigation, and a representative for Jennifer Lawrence have announced that anyone who posts them will be prosecuted.
It’s also worth noting that XVALA is choosing to show his “work” in Florida rather than his native L.A. — which might have something to do with the fact that in California, posting nude photos without consent and with the intention of causing distress is actually against the law.
What do you think? Should the photos be allowed to be used for an art exhbition?
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