Update (May 28) : Art or not, it’s still exploitation, Steve Biddulph, The Age | High Court’s soft spot for Henson, Leo Shanahan, The Age | Henson art is great, Sebastian Smee, The Australian…
- Previously on Bill Henson’s Blues : Bill Henson : Crikey! says Clive | Bill Henson : Art or Pornography? | mgk / suki has an opinion down after complaint by local white supremacists to MD Webhosting
Henson images not porn, says expert, AAP/Herald Sun, May 26, 2008: Betty Churcher, a former director of the National Gallery of Australia opines. (Also Henson’s naked teen shots ‘not pornography’, ABC, May 26, 2008).
In reaction to the NSW police raid and confiscation of some of his work, a gallery in Albury has also removed a number of Bill’s other works: Another gallery removes Henson nudes, ABC, May 26, 2008. “The council’s James Jenkins says police have been asked to look at the works, which have been exhibited before without complaint.” (Also Gallery removes Henson photos / Henson hit again, Victoria McDonald and Brad Worrall, The Age, May 26, 2008.)
Whatever the good burghers of Albury might suddenly discover about the photos that have been hanging on their gallery’s walls, PM Krudd is under fire for his denunciation of Henson’s work as “revolting”. Australian PM under fire in row over art and pornography (AFP, May 26, 2008): Playwright Michael Gow, the artistic director of the Queensland Theatre Company, is quoted as opining that KRudd’s revulsion “was at odds with Rudd’s comments at a brain-storming meeting he called last month which included 100 leading members of the country’s arts community. “Among the many cliches endorsed at the 2020 Summit was the one about art… being provocative and challenging,” Gow wrote in a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald. “Now that some art has provoked, what has happened? The prime minister who invited us to Canberra has questioned the abilities and credentials of a major Australian artist.” Writing in The Sydney Morning Herald (Festival of filth and wagging tongues, May 27, 2008), Annabel Crabb reckons “POLITICIANS should keep out of art”. Which begs the question: should artists stay out of politics?
Unlike Albury, a Wollongong gallery reckons its gonna keep on keeping on with Henson (Wollongong gallery keeps Henson art, Jodie Minus, Illawarra Mercury, May 26, 2008). The question is: will they be inviting the police in to offer some expert advice?
The Age editorial (Consent is central issue in the Henson debate) of May 27 argues that “At the heart of this matter lies something more profound and of greater concern than the perhaps irresolvable question of whether Henson’s images of pubescent children are art or pornography. The crucial issue is that of consent: can a 13-year-old give mature consent to being depicted in this way?” Legally speaking, the answer is quite probably ‘no’, which is also the opinion of former judge and law professor George Hampel (Henson model could sue, Karen Kissane, The Age, May 27, 2008).
In a final example of the reaction of the corporate/state media sector to the controversy, following his comrade Andrew Bolt’s lead, Tim Blair in The Daily Telegraph (Bone of artistic contention, May 27, 2008) weighs in, taking a free kick at leftists/the art world/Catharine Lumby.
Speaking of art and cops, on previous censorship of a piece by thirty-something Trotskyist Azlan McLennan, see also : Art = Ego (January 12, 2006) | Victorian Authorities Censor ‘Entartete Kunst’… Again (January 28, 2006) | “If someone has a go at me I’ll always have a go back” (February 7, 2006) | Leunig saved from free-fall (February 15, 2006) | Burn-A-Flag-For-Lenin Week! (November 12, 2006)
Oh yeah, millionaire street artist Banksy got competition. While his uncle is busy being revolted, Young Rudd’s fiery artwork too hot for council to handle, apparently (Michelle Grattan, The Age, May 23, 2008): “MELBOURNE City Council has rejected a controversial painting by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s nephew that depicts the clown Ronald McDonald carrying the Olympic torch past a burning monk.” Which is not the first time the MCC has gotten more than it’s bargained for from some upstart artist: in May 2004, Azlan McLennan’s Fifty Six was given the arse, and the MCC also told him to piss off from an exhibition in September 2005.
Above : McLennan’s work being cleansed
Finally, a fact that is both obscene and not-obscene. Since the end of the G20 summit in Melbourne on November 19, 2006 to today — and despite the protestations of thousands of young people organised by some young social entrepreneurs — UNICEF estimates that 16,650,000 children have died as a result of poverty-related causes.
Bummer eh?
The Trotskyists helped the pedophiles organize cell structures, and indeed gave them the syntax of struggle. They are all over the Henson campaign. So McCarthy (if he returned) would have a legitimate thing with that.
I assume the the leftist Henson campaigning is a hobby distinct from the pedophile-group effort. Henson is being supported by the extreme end of the extreme. Neither Alison, Cate or Bill seem to care.
Hmmm. This is very worrying. I wonder what the relationship is between the Trotskyists and the pro-porn lunatics at the Classification Board? Was Trotsky himself responsible for the development of the porn industry?
Something else to repudiate:
The Trots were helping Henson’s campaign, they also helped start up PIE in London, or at least their members did.
They’re fairly transgressive politicos, they’re not fans of faith, motherland, family, marriage, and to be honest, gender is also a suspect issue for them, they actually view sexual radicalism, as well, being quite destructive of the institutional forms they needed to alter, I think alter is a good word.
(They’re also serious, they look forward to the day they have trains criss-crossing Russia hunting down the neo-White armies.)
Now, I am not claiming Henson asked them to help, in fairness I can’t say that. They were all over it with a passion. More up front than the brothel, strip club, porn people, who also gave it a twirl behind the scenes, with the odd public statement.
The title says it all really… a festival of pies. In London.
The London Pie Festival is being planned for 2008. The Festival will be a chance for pie-lovers to meet, drink, listen to some music, buy a promotional t-shirt or two, and – most importantly – eat some pies.
Bastards.
Whatever, the PIE/GLF people have a corner of wiki to keep tidy, they’re at it more or less around the clock. History (as written by them) is important to them. They’re tidying up ‘Ian Dunn’ at the moment.
So if one takes that ‘rights’ culture forward, what’s to stop a 13 year old, or a classroom of them going into business for themselves or is Bill the official state pimp for 13 year old girls?
It’s the same agency isn’t it?
Gregory
“So if one takes that ‘rights’ culture forward, what’s to stop a 13 year old, or a classroom of them going into business for themselves?”
One plucky priest?
I don’t know about thirteen year olds, but how about 16 and 17 year old entrepeneurs?
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/02/20/teen-couple-who-phot.html
See what happens when you get all knee-jerky about these things?
It’s all over for the child-loving charlatan and the earnest libertarians who breached their professional ethics to sabotage the prosecution.