The real Dark Mofo scandal? It’s search for shock over substance

Dark Mofo is one of a few — if not the only– arts festival in Australia that still could be considered edgy, but this year it capitulated to the mob and cancelled a piece of art that should have been defended on principle but lambasted on substance (or lack thereof).  

The artwork subject to cancellation cries was by controversial Spanish performance artist Santiago Sierra who asked indigenous people to give blood so that he could spill it on the Union Jack.  

This artwork was clearly designed to be a statement against colonialism but that didn’t stop it from being the subject of an outrage mob. The critics of the piece had a point when they say it is hypocrisy for Sierra to demonstrate that spilling indigenous…