Bless her heart - but who's drawing a line in the sand now?
Queensland child-protection advocate Hetty Johnston says there is nothing wrong with her accepting election donations from the adult pornography industry.
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UPDATE: The Police have decided not to charge Henson or the Gallery.
Following advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the NSW Police Force believes there is no reasonable prospect of a successful conviction in relation to art works displayed at a Sydney gallery last month.
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And the Roslyn Oxley Gallery have put out a statement as well which I have reproduced for you below;
Media release
Friday, June 6, 2008
Decision Welcomed.
Bill Henson and the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery today welcomed the decision by NSW Police on the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions not to proceed with charges in relation to the recent Henson exhibition and earlier work.
Mr Henson said: "It has been profoundly humbling to witness the depth of support for my work in these past weeks.
"Of course I recognise that much of this support came from the desire of many people to voice their commitment to more general principles.
"It is reassuring to see existing laws, having been rigorously tested, still provide a framework in which debate and expression of ideas can occur."
Gallery director Roslyn Oxley said she was grateful for the support from thousands of
Australians during the process.
"We received support not just from within the Australian art community, but from
ordinary Australians who were concerned by the events of the past month.
"These messages give us faith that our society really is as we believe it be – one that is open to frank debate and inquiry and not afraid to voice differing views."
Bravo.
Friday, 6 June 2008
Oops-a-daisy!
Posted by Nicholas Pickard at 2:12 pm
Labels: Censorship, News, Visual Arts
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8 comments:
Maybe it's just a simple case of "Better the devil you know"?
Aw, c'mon Hetty, you can't have it three ways... er...
I mean you can't have it both ways.
On a serious note though - what a relief that charges have been dropped and that the Classification Board has issued a ruling based on the fact these images are 'not sexualised in any way'. It would've seemed a no-brainer except for the Festival of Wowserish Madness curated by some of the nations least convincing thinkers over the last couple of weeks. I hope that's not an annual event.
Speaking of least convincing thinkers, Hetty Johnson's assertion that the adult porn industry does not put children at risk is gobsmackingly ignorant. Mostly thanks to the shrillness of aforementioned wowsers - such as Johnson's most strident supporters (though she may have just lost a few) - we have a largely illegal and therefore unregulated porn industry in Aus. Therefore there is bugger-all (pardon the expression) protection for women (and men) who want to pursue this line of work and no-one in the industry looking out for the rights of children and young people. Like any industry that is forced underground by illegality, it makes its own rules.
It's absolutely no loss to Queensland that she lost that senate seat.
Now that the Henson madness seems to have dies down, can we get back to discussions of theatre? By the way SAJ there's a good production of "Lear" on at the moment at the New Theatre. David Ritchie's very solid as Lear, and his daughter is good as his daughter...
would that be the fourth (again!) incarnation of the play originally directed by michael pigott?
I think the Ritchie family are going for a record
Yes - I'm afraid St G - that I have already experienced three of the 'incarnations' and have no desire for the fourth.
But a good show nonetheless.
I quite understand SAJ. I said worth seeing--not worth seeing four times...
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