Secret Service looks into art exhibit with political views

CHICAGO -- The Secret Service sent agents to investigate a college art gallery exhibit of mock postage stamps, one depicting President Bush with a gun pointed at his head, to guarantee "this is nothing more than artwork with a political statement," a spokesman said Tuesday. The exhibit, called "Axis of Evil: The Secret History of Sin," opened last week at Columbia College's Glass Curtain Gallery in Chicago. The 47 artists designed fake postage stamps addressing issues such as the clergy sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, racism, and the war in Iraq. None of the artists is tied to the college.\nSecret Service Spokesman Tom Mazur said Tuesday that the inquiry started after a call from a Chicago resident. Mazur would not say whether the inquiry had been completed or with whom the Secret Service had spoken, but he said no artwork had been confiscated.\nThe two federal agents arrived at the exhibit's opening night Thursday, took photos of some of the works and asked for the artists' contact information, said CarolAnn Brown, the gallery's director. Brown said the agents were most interested in Chicago artist Al Brandtner's "Patriot Act," a sheet of mock 37-cent red, white and blue stamps showing a revolver pointed at President Bush's head.\nBrandtner did not return a call to his design studio Tuesday. Brown said she referred the agents to the exhibit's curator, Michael Hernandez de Luna, who organized the show and also has several works in the exhibit, including a series of stamps depicting a plane crashing into Chicago's Sears Tower.\nWalking through the gallery Tuesday, Hernandez de Luna said that he thinks the agents were just following protocol. \n"It frightens me," he said, "because it starts questioning all rights, not only my rights or the artists' rights in this room, but questioning the rights of any artist who creates - any writer, any visual artist, any performance artist. It seems like we're being watched."\nFor the past 10 years, Hernandez de Luna has created mock stamps and tried to get them through the mail; his works with real cancelation marks have sold for $2,000. In 2001, he and another artist were suspected of creating a bogus stamp with a black skull and crossbones design and the word "Anthrax"; its discovery shut down part of Chicago's main post office for several hours. Hernandez de Luna won't talk about the incident, and neither artist was ever charged. As for the most recent controversy, he said he is letting his attorney handle all contacts with the Secret Service, and he would not say whether he has instructed his lawyer to turn over information on other artists in the show. He said the exhibit attracted "no hoopla" when it appeared at a Philadelphia gallery.\nThe Secret Service has investigated art exhibits before. Last spring, agents in Washington state questioned a high school student about anti-war drawings he did for an art class, one of which depicted President Bush's head on a stick. Brown, the Chicago gallery's director, said she hopes the government's interest in the postage stamp exhibit will attract more viewers and encourage a wider debate on some of the themes the show addresses. One red stamp has the words "Blood for Oil" under a picture of a sport utility vehicle. Another uses images of naked prisoners from the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal to comprise a grotesque picture of former Attorney General John Ashcroft's face.\n"It's very contemporary, it's current events," Brown said. "I'm always interested in creating a dialogue, whether it's a safe dialogue or a controversial dialogue"