NASHVILLE, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Outcry against a video that includes the beheading of a U.S. hostage may lead to the work being withdrawn from a Tennessee competition that the artwork won.
Artists Elvan Penny and Scott Phelps, students at the Watkins College of Art & Design, entered "Fearful Symmetry" -- a 4 1/2-minute video that includes the beheading of Eugene Armstrong -- in the 2004 Browlee O. Currey Student Art Exhibition and won. They said the work was to make people more aware of violence overseas, the Nashville Tennessean reported.
News of the competition results, however, spurred several phone calls and e-mail messages, some of which were very angry, the school president said. The students were considering pulling the video.
"(Penny and Phelps) were very sensitive to what is going on in the world and they tried to make a strong statement about violence and inhumanity in our culture. That was a noble effort. Then they saw just an awful negative reaction against the institution," Watkins President Jim Brooks told the newspaper.
Competition officials said even if the work is withdrawn, they will still award the $500 first prize to the artists. Penny and Phelps told the Tennessean they would donate any prize monies to charity.
