ben303 wrote:However if you do your research, The artist 'Zhu Yu' actually DID eat a real fetus.
I think you put quotation marks in the wrong place there, they should have been around 'artist'.
When someone claims (correctly or incorrectly) to have eaten a fetus, slept with a thousand people or made paint with their own turds or menstrual blood in the name of 'art', it's a pretty safe bet that those claims are being made in lieu of actual technical or creative ability.
It's unfortunate that these days, 'artist' seems to be commonly used where 'boring talentless publicity whore' would be a much more accurate description, whereas 'conceptual artist' seems to be a fancy way of saying 'someone whose entire output could be verbally described to the point of adequate recreateability on the back of a postcard'.
I don't do sarcasm smileys, but someone as bright as you has probably figured that out already.