Kevin Rudd and the art of mistakes

That reactionary Prime Minister of ours found himself undone when he decided to become moral arbitrator and chief art critic for the Commonwealth;

"Photographs of naked 12- and 13-year-olds at a Sydney exhibition shut down by police are revolting and have no artistic merit," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said when shown the photographs.

Well that sorts it then, doesn't it? Unfortunately not.

Rudd joined a chorus of condemnation with class captain Hetty Johnston leading the pack;

"It's child exploitation, it's criminal activity and it should be prosecuted, both the photographer Bill Henson ... but also the gallery because these are clearly images that are sexually exploiting young children," Ms Johnston said.

Johnston and Rudd are certainly going to have nice fight on their hands if they want to keep that line.

Luckily they have friends.

The Daily Telegraph is unashamedly one of them. Yesterday’s editorial took the cake;

“Creative elites have long used the defence of "art" to get away with words and images that in another context - that is to say, outside of art galleries and among normal people - would result in condemnation or criminal conviction.

“Try publishing art photographer Bill Henson's child-obsessed work in a mainstream publication.”

Anyone else see the irony?

Interestingly, none of the staff arts writers at the paper have written anything about it. Instead, the editors at the paper have sent out urban affairs reporters, who did themselves proud.

In today’s Daily Telegraph Janet Fife-Yeomans (who?) gives comment;

“Bill Henson is not the only one who should be charged over his photographs of young, naked girls and boys. Their parents should join them.”

Where do these people come from?

I actually feel pretty sorry for these kids. One minute they are the subjects of an art exhibition and the next minute news outlets see it fitting that the portraits are taken out of the four walls of an exhibition and pummelled to a mass mainstream audience.

David Marr thinks it is a farce;

“ROLL up, roll up. Get your tickets now. Bookings will be coming in from round the world: Australia is putting art back in the dock. What a spectacle it will be: prosecutors thundering; experts talking Caravaggio and Mapplethorpe; defence counsel declaring Bill Henson the greatest thing since Titian picked up a brush.”

This isn’t a farce and is one of the most serious censorship issues to come up since Ken Park was banned in Australia.

The champions of censorship are clear about their intentions. They want an artist in our country charged and jailed because they slam down their own hysteria onto the entire community. And that is the most perverse thing about this whole debate.

According to Marr, another exhibition in the inner west suburb of Leichhardt was closed down a few weeks ago because it was “about Palestine's troubles”.

This is a debate about values, opinions and ideas. And the worst outcome for all of us is that artists, curators, writers and directors will start self censoring… self censoring even more, that is.


Around the traps, here is what is being said;

Robert Nelson in The Age
A furore has ensued over this censorship, as this Melbourne artist is one of Australia's foremost photographers, with international standing. Cases of censorship are damaging to a country's cultural reputation overseas; because a nation that values free speech must also protect artistic freedom.

Clive Hamilton in Crikey
If we lived in a society of sophisticated people with mature s-xuality, one that respected children and the integrity of their maturation process, then there could be no objection to the Henson exhibition.

Melbourne Arts and Culture Critic
The last time that NSW Police were stupid enough to venture into art censorship in 1982, was also at Roslyn Oxley Gallery. Then they fueled the career of painter Juan Davila. I don’t know what they hope to achieve this time as Bill Henson’s career is well established, but the price of his photographs is sure to rise with the increased controversy.

Chris Merritt in The Australian
If the case goes ahead, the defence would need to show the photographs had been produced and used for a genuine artistic purpose - the same argument used in the Oz trial in London in the 1971. Mr Simpson said it would be relevant that the photographs were part of an exhibit at an art gallery and had not been displayed in one of the main streets of Sydney. Other photographs by Bill Henson are on display at the High Court in Canberra and at the Art Gallery of NSW.

Chris Boyd in The Morning After
The bastille has been stormed by those who vociferously deny that context counts here. That an image in an art gallery -- or in your family photo album -- is identical to that same image if it were printed in a magazine to advertise clothes or posted on a porn site.