inmate’s final request: to help feed starving fishies

No matter what your view on the death penalty, it has to be said that some of the people put to death in the United States are simply insane.  Case in point: one Mr. Gene Hathorn, convicted in Texas in 1985 of killing his father, stepmother, and stepbrother.  He has made it his expressed wish that once he is executed, his body is to be turned into a work of art by artist Marco Evaristti.  Evaristti in turn has decided that his “work of art” will consist of one large goldfish tank with hundreds of fish inside.  Viewers may then feed the fish with food made out of Mr. Hathorn’s dead body.

Texas state law allows the person who is going to be executed to give his remains to someone of his choosing, and Mr. Hathorn has chosen Mr. Evarstti.  Great minds think alike, and minds that are a little bit stranger don’t think to differently either.  For reference, some of the other projects completed by this artist include putting goldfish in electric blenders and having patrons press the “on” button, and hosting a dinner party where he served meatballs made from the fat from his own body.

Who are the people going to these exhibitions? I’m imagining a skinhead who lives in a basement and tortures small animals (or something like the murderer from “Silence of the Lambs”) imagine a whole art show full of these people and that’s probably something like what these exhibitions are like. Not that I’ve ever been to one. No one’s going to “draw the line” because no one can. There’s no law against being a sick bastard unless you hurt someone physically (psychological torture is obviously fair game).

On the other hand, he’s certainly succeeding at getting people’s attention, and his cause is one that many people around the world would agree with: the ending of capital punishment. As long as it is a means to an end it’s a little more tolerable, i guess. Because sometimes art for art’s sake doesn’t work…yuck.