I'll bet my house that, love him or loath him, Malcolm Turnbull will be the next PM of the Commonwealth Government.
Much to his credit, he has been one of the only politicians to stand up and support photographer 
Bill Henson. And with all the populist conservatism of Kevin Rudd, Morris Iemma and the appalling silence of Peter Garrett, it is a breath of much needed fresh air.
But today I have a sneaking suspicion that the real power behind Malcolm Turnbull is wife Lucy Turnbull. Already a great advocate of the arts and board member for many cultural institutions, it also appears that she has come up as one of the first signatories to a petition publicly condemning the police raids and investigations into Bill Henson.
If it isn't any foolish forgery and is actually the one and only Lucy Turnbull - then it says a lot about the future first couple. There is just no way in Hades that she would have allowed Malcolm to remain silent on an issue very close.
They already own a number of Henson's work and she would have been very quick to make sure her husband was one of the first out of the ranks to stand up and be counted as one of his supporters.
If you are so inclined, I encourage you too join Lucy Turnbull, spread the word and sign up as a supporter of Bill Henson.
We can't just rely on the 2020 collective - it needs a bigger and better call to arms. News in today reports that ACT Police are now also involved in the investigations with raids on the National Gallery of Australia and other Canberra galleries.
Speaking of which, isn't it about time that we really had an arts advocacy body? And maybe Lucy Turnbull could be the first patron of the body.
[UPDATE: Just discovered that it wasn't her but another 'Lucy Turnbull'. Nevermind... but anyway, aren't the Turnbull's fantastic?!]
Thursday, 29 May 2008
Future PM's wife defends Henson
Posted by Nicholas Pickard at 9:51 am
Labels: Arts Advocacy, Censorship, News, Visual Arts
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10 comments:
The irony here is delicious. After a decade of the Arts-for-Labor crowd vilifying everything about the Coalition, it takes a rich successful Liberal politician who doesn't need the job to line his own nest to have the testicular fortitude to stand up and be counted for Henson, something no one else in either party is capable of. Garrett will NEVER recover from this--his credibility is destroyed forever. Like him or loathe him, at least Turnbull isn't a pygmy, which is more than can be said for anyone else in federal or state parliament.
I am travelling outside of Oz, and something worth keeping in mind as this Henson fiasco unfolds is that this is the first story to have made big news around the world concerning Oz since the apology to the stolen generations. How are we perceived? ‘Confused’ was the term someone I spoke to today used.
I also read this fantastic quote from Howard Barker just last night. This was first published in the Guardian in 1988, and is Barker calling for a ‘theatre of Catastrophe’, which ”… insists on the limits of tolerance as its territory. It inhabits the area of maximum risk, both to the imagination and invention of its author, and to the comfort of its audience. It commands the loyalty and attention of those for whom the raucous repetition of social platitudes of both left and right appear as aridities. But the conflict experienced between the audience and what it witnesses, its exposure to the unbidden thought, creates pain and even resentment. It is distinctly not an experience associated with entertainment, and consequently an audience needs to be both prepared and, as is the case with all new theatre, educated in its freedom.” Interesting, no?
Third – if someone masturbates in front of Van Gogh’s Irises, does that make it porn? I wouldn’t have thought so. Can I tell if he exploited those Irises by looking at the painting? Actually, no. Could I confiscate the Irises and call it ‘evidence’ that the Irises were exploited? I could, but that would make me about as weird as the guy who is wanking in front of them.
Confused little nation suppressing those with vision.
Nice to see in today's SMH letters that at least the former Artistic Director of STC has, along with Michael Gow at QTC, the courage to stand up and be counted as an individual, not a name on a list.
I think your comment is very snide, Anon. Names on a list has, for as long as I can remember, been a powerful action tool of individuals uniting for a common cause.
I mean, "Brava!" for La Nevin and all that, but why do you see the need to enhance the power and importance of her contribution to the debate at the expense of others'?
You don't have the right to reduce me ... and if you can lift yourself above baseless sycophancy for one moment, why not read the petition you so blatantly belittle and read some of the names that are on it.
Hmm... now we are fighting over whose voice is better heard defending an artist.
Interesting.
Just to lighten the tone for a moment, and to give Geoffrey a chance to calm down, there's a very funny piece on The Evening Standard in London today saying there will be a fine of up to two years in prison for theatres that outrageously "pull quote' from reviews to mislead the public! A few Sydney establishments would find themselves in the dock I daresay...
I'm not "fighting over whose voice is better heard defending the artist" at all SAJ. I am simply correcting the misnomer that people's names on a list is somehow not equal in such a defence as one name to a letter ... no matter whose name it is.
You're very naughty to try and make anything more out of it.
My comment was directed at Anonymous, Geoffrey.
There's nothing wrong with a name on a list at all. There's nothing wrong with a bit of solidarity and there's nothing wrong with petitions.
I really don't see what Anon's problem is.
Letters, petitions, a soap box in Hyde Park--it's all good. Great that Turnbull proudly identifies himself as a patron (i.e. owner) of Henson's work. Would be great if a few more owners of Henson's work came forward. What's the NSW police going to do, knock on their doors in the middle of the night and arrest them?
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