{"id":1179,"date":"2008-05-27T04:32:49","date_gmt":"2008-05-26T18:32:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=1179"},"modified":"2008-05-28T05:15:24","modified_gmt":"2008-05-27T19:15:24","slug":"bill-henson-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=1179","title":{"rendered":"Bill Henson &#8230; Again"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Update<\/strong> (May 28) : <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/news\/opinion\/art-or-not-its-still-exploitation\/2008\/05\/27\/1211654026964.html\">Art or not, it&#8217;s still exploitation<\/a>, Steve Biddulph, <em>The Age<\/em> | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/news\/national\/high-courts-soft-spot-for-henson\/2008\/05\/27\/1211654031701.html\">High Court&#8217;s soft spot for Henson<\/a>, Leo Shanahan, <em>The Age<\/em> | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theaustralian.news.com.au\/story\/0,25197,23769173-5013480,00.html\">Henson art is great<\/a>, Sebastian Smee, <em>The Australian<\/em>&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>Previously on Bill Henson&#8217;s Blues : <a href=\"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=1177\">Bill Henson : Crikey! says Clive<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=1174\">Bill Henson : Art or Pornography?<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=1172\">mgk \/ suki has an opinion down after complaint by local white supremacists to MD Webhosting<\/a><\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.news.com.au\/heraldsun\/story\/0,21985,23758215-5005961,00.html\">Henson images not porn, says expert<\/a>, AAP\/<em>Herald Sun<\/em>, May 26, 2008: Betty Churcher, a former director of the National Gallery of Australia opines. (Also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/stories\/2008\/05\/26\/2255460.htm\">Henson&#8217;s naked teen shots &#8216;not pornography&#8217;<\/a>, ABC, May 26, 2008).<\/p>\n<p>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&#8217;s other works: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/stories\/2008\/05\/26\/2255496.htm\">Another gallery removes Henson nudes<\/a>, ABC, May 26, 2008. &#8220;The council&#8217;s James Jenkins says police have been asked to look at the works, which have been exhibited before without complaint.&#8221; (Also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/news\/national\/gallery-pulls-henson-art\/2008\/05\/26\/1211653903696.html\">Gallery removes Henson photos<\/a> \/ <a href=\"http:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/news\/arts\/henson-hit-again\/2008\/05\/26\/1211653912635.html\">Henson hit again<\/a>, Victoria McDonald and Brad Worrall, <em>The Age<\/em>, May 26, 2008.)<\/p>\n<p>Whatever the good burghers of Albury might suddenly discover about the photos that have been hanging on their gallery&#8217;s walls, PM Krudd is under fire for his denunciation of Henson&#8217;s work as &#8220;revolting&#8221;. <a href=\"http:\/\/afp.google.com\/article\/ALeqM5gq8TN4eS6xAfmY38xPnNvSOf9Dfg\">Australian PM under fire in row over art and pornography<\/a> (AFP, May 26, 2008): Playwright Michael Gow, the artistic director of the Queensland Theatre Company, is quoted as opining that KRudd&#8217;s revulsion &#8220;was at odds with Rudd&#8217;s comments at a brain-storming meeting he called last month which included 100 leading members of the country&#8217;s arts community. &#8220;Among the many cliches endorsed at the 2020 Summit was the one about art&#8230; being provocative and challenging,&#8221; Gow wrote in a letter to the <em>Sydney Morning Herald<\/em>. &#8220;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.&#8221; Writing in <em>The Sydney Morning Herald<\/em> (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/news\/annabel-crabb\/festival-of-filth-and-wagging-tongues\/2008\/05\/26\/1211653937348.html\">Festival of filth and wagging tongues<\/a>, May 27, 2008), Annabel Crabb reckons &#8220;POLITICIANS should keep out of art&#8221;. Which begs the question: should artists stay out of politics?<\/p>\n<p>Unlike Albury, a Wollongong gallery reckons its gonna keep on keeping on with Henson (<a href=\"http:\/\/illawarra.yourguide.com.au\/news\/local\/news\/general\/wollongong-gallery-keeps-henson-art\/777073.aspx\">Wollongong gallery keeps Henson art<\/a>, Jodie Minus, <em>Illawarra Mercury<\/em>, May 26, 2008). The question is: will they be inviting the police in to offer some expert advice?<\/p>\n<p><em>The Age<\/em> editorial (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/news\/editorial\/consent-is-central-issue-in-the-henson-debate\/2008\/05\/26\/1211653935152.html\">Consent is central issue in the Henson debate<\/a>) of May 27 argues that &#8220;At the heart of this matter lies something more profound and of greater concern than the perhaps irresolvable question of whether Henson&#8217;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?&#8221; Legally speaking, the answer is quite probably &#8216;no&#8217;, which is also the opinion of former judge and law professor George Hampel (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/news\/national\/henson-model-could-sue\/2008\/05\/26\/1211653938450.html\">Henson model could sue<\/a>, Karen Kissane, <em>The Age<\/em>, May 27, 2008).<\/p>\n<p>In a final example of the reaction of the corporate\/state media sector to the controversy, following his comrade Andrew Bolt&#8217;s lead, Tim Blair in <em>The Daily Telegraph<\/em> (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.news.com.au\/dailytelegraph\/story\/0,22049,23761028-5001031,00.html\">Bone of artistic contention<\/a>, May 27, 2008) weighs in, taking a free kick at leftists\/the art world\/Catharine Lumby.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of art and cops, on previous censorship of a piece by thirty-something Trotskyist <a href=\"http:\/\/azlanmclennan.com\/\">Azlan McLennan<\/a>, <em>see also<\/em> : <a href=\"http:\/\/slackbastard.blogspot.com\/2006\/01\/art-ego.html\">Art = Ego<\/a> (January 12, 2006) | <a href=\"http:\/\/slackbastard.blogspot.com\/2006\/01\/victorian-authorities-censor-entartete_27.html\">Victorian Authorities Censor &#8216;Entartete Kunst&#8217;&#8230; Again<\/a> (January 28, 2006) | <a href=\"http:\/\/slackbastard.blogspot.com\/2006\/02\/if-someone-has-go-at-me-ill-always.html\">&#8220;If someone has a go at me I&#8217;ll always have a go back&#8221;<\/a> (February 7, 2006) | <a href=\"http:\/\/slackbastard.blogspot.com\/2006\/02\/leunig-saved-from-free-fall.html\">Leunig saved from free-fall<\/a> (February 15, 2006) | <a href=\"http:\/\/slackbastard.blogspot.com\/2006\/02\/burn-flag-for-lenin-week.html\">Burn-A-Flag-For-Lenin Week!<\/a> (November 12, 2006)<\/p>\n<ul><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.theage.com.au\/ftage\/ffximage\/2008\/05\/23\/lf_ruddbanksystory_narrowweb__300x368,0.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/ul>\n<p>Oh yeah, millionaire street artist <a href=\"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?s=Banksy\">Banksy<\/a> got competition. While his uncle is busy being revolted, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/news\/national\/young-rudds-fiery-artwork-too-hot-for-council-to-handle\/2008\/05\/22\/1211183002969.html\">Young Rudd&#8217;s fiery artwork too hot for council to handle<\/a>, apparently (Michelle Grattan, <em>The Age<\/em>, May 23, 2008): &#8220;MELBOURNE City Council has rejected a controversial painting by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd&#8217;s nephew that depicts the clown Ronald McDonald carrying the Olympic torch past a burning monk.&#8221; Which is not the first time the MCC has gotten more than it&#8217;s bargained for from some upstart artist: in May 2004, Azlan McLennan&#8217;s <em>Fifty Six<\/em> was given the arse, and the MCC also told him to piss off from an exhibition in September 2005.<\/p>\n<ul><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/photos1.blogger.com\/blogger\/7318\/426\/320\/mclennan.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Above<\/em> : McLennan&#8217;s work being cleansed<\/ul>\n<p>Finally, a fact that is both obscene and not-obscene. Since the end of the <a href=\"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?s=G20\">G20<\/a> summit in Melbourne on November 19, 2006 to today &#8212; and despite the <a href=\"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=451\">protestations<\/a> of thousands of young people organised by some young <a href=\"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=463\">social entrepreneurs<\/a> &#8212; UNICEF estimates that 16,650,000 children have died as a result of poverty-related causes.<\/p>\n<p>Bummer eh?<\/p>\n<ul><object width=\"425\" height=\"355\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/ssBq3SuJ9K4&#038;hl=en\"><\/param><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\"><\/param><\/object><\/ul>\n<p><object width=\"425\" height=\"355\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/VT_WpXlqW1s&#038;hl=en\"><\/param><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\"><\/param><\/object><\/p>\n<ul><object width=\"425\" height=\"355\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/3wPCiyjtBfo&#038;hl=en\"><\/param><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\"><\/param><\/object><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Update (May 28) : Art or not, it&#8217;s still exploitation, Steve Biddulph, The Age | High Court&#8217;s soft spot for Henson, Leo Shanahan, The Age | Henson art is great, Sebastian Smee, The Australian&#8230; Previously on Bill Henson&#8217;s Blues : &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=1179\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12,14,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-sex-sexuality","category-state"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6AyE-j1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}