Coming Soon to an arthouse near you

There are not many words I can add to this.

After pickled sheep, unmade beds and painting with elephant dung, some questioned where modern art could go next.

Kira O'Reilly will provide her own answer today by spending four hours naked, hugging a dead pig - at the taxpayer's expense.

The controversial Irish performance artist will invite one person at a time to watch her sit in a specially-constructed set and perform a 'crushing slow dance' with the carcass in her arms.

She claims the bizarre exhibition is an attempt to 'identify' with the pig, which she cuts with a knife during the show.

I guess the overly simplistic ideological response is to point out that you know you have gone overboard when the typically uber-liberal animal rights people are unhappy with the typically uber-liberal wierd arts people.

Visitors to the Newlyn Art Gallery in Newlyn, Cornwall - funded by taxpayers and the lottery - will be allowed to watch her for ten minutes. The gallery has defended its decision to stage the one-off show, but animal rights campaigners have labelled the performance 'sick'.

Anita Singh, spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said: 'This seems to be a desperate cry for help that merits visits from mental health counsellors, not voyeurs.

'As Miss O'Reilly seems to depend on the shock value of using a murdered pig as a prop, perhaps lacking the talent to make it as a proper artist, may we suggest she take up a day job instead to pay the bills. This is not entertainment - this is sick.'

What happens to the people who are cross-members of the animal rights types and the wierd art types?

Gallery director James Green defended the show as a 'very personal piece of work'. He said: 'This is a challenging piece of work and exactly the kind of show we should be delivering.

I want to know...how is this "exactly" the kind of show they should deliever. I mean, please define what they "should be delivering" so that we know if the next freak of nature-artist that comes around falls under the "kind of show" they "should be delivering".