The Henson Case Makes PM's Shortlist

David Marr's excellent little paper back The Henson Case was today shortlisted on the Prime Minister's Literary Awards.

It's an extraordinary thing because if Kevin Rudd hadn't blurted out his presumptious little comment about Bill Henson's art works on morning television, there probably wouldn't have been such a storm in a tea-cup.

And there probably wouldn't be a book.

"I find them absolutely revolting," Rudd said.

Fifteen months later he's short-listed a book with a artistic photo of a young girl on the cover. Maybe Kevin 07 has come around...

In an almost off-handish way, Arts Minister Garrett says in a media release distributed today that "the 2009 Non-Fiction shortlist is a wide selection of works that cover biographies of key Australian figures, put Australian history under the microscope, and tackle Indigenous and contemporary issues.”

A contemporary issue. That's certainly one way to put it.

Let's go back to what felt like 1971...

http://artsjournalist.blogspot.com/2008/05/where-are-we-again.html

Marr's book is nominated alongside Van Diemen's Land, James Boyce; Doing Life: A Biography of Elizabeth Jolley, Brian Dibble; Gough Whitlam: A Moment in History, Jenny Hocking; The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island, Chloe Hooper; House of Exile: The Life and Times of Heinrich Mann and Nelly Kroeger-Mann, Evelyn Juers; Drawing the Global Colour Line, Marilyn Lake and Henry Reynolds; and American Journeys, Don Watson.

Fine - Keep it a secret

I received the below email yesterday;

This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a third-party notification by Asphalt Tango Records claiming that this material is infringing:

Fanfare Ciocarlia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmmWUnwXkLM

Please Note: Repeat incidents of copyright infringement will result in the deletion of your account and all videos uploaded to that account. In order to prevent this from happening, please delete any videos to which you do not own the rights, and refrain from uploading additional videos that infringe on the copyrights of others. For more information about YouTube's copyright policy, please read the Copyright Tips guide.

If you elect to send us a counter notice, please go to our Help Center to access the instructions.

Be aware that there may be adverse legal consequences in your country if you make a false or bad faith allegation of copyright infringement by using this process.
Sincerely,
YouTube, Inc.

© 2009 YouTube, LLC


Compare this attitude to the one employed by the far more successful band - Cinematic Orchestra - who encourage music videos and live performances placed on YouTube and you can see why they are more world renown. They, too, are at the Sydney Festival.

Bare in mind that the 30 second video I placed on YouTube was a public performance in the foyer of a theatre and not in a paid venue. Also consider the great light I put the band in, with most of the video capturing members of the public clapping and smiling, dancing and cheering and you will maybe start to understand my total disbelief.

The management of Asphalt Tango maybe need to consider entering the 21st Century by starting to understand the workings of the new media and how it can be successfully utilised as a vehicle for modern day marketing and publicity.

So, instead of Gypsy Kings and Queens, I have placed for your enjoyment a clip from the far more successful Goran Bregovic and his Weddings and Funeral Band who staged a much better concert last year in Sydney. .

Welcome back

Imagine being away from Sydney for over three weeks, taking in the sights and sounds of Europe and North America to return home and find this in your local rag;

Say you were the principal of St Kilda Primary School in Melbourne and, unlike Sue Knight, you wanted to inform parents beforehand that a controversial photographer would be coming to the playground to scout for models. How would you construct the letter that went home?

"Dear parents:

"Acclaimed artist Bill Henson, who specialises in photographing adolescents in various states of undress, is having trouble finding models and would like you to consider having your child pose naked for him. He will be attending the school this Friday at lunchtime to survey the students for potential candidates. This is a wonderful opportunity for our school community to show its support of the arts and I would hope that you will join us in welcoming Mr Henson. If there are any objections, please call the school office and we will arrange for your child to stay in the classroom at lunchtime."

Some things don't change do they Miranda?

And like a swarming mass of bored teenagers waiting at a train station, the media have gone bezerck over the fact that Henson was escorted around a school to see if there were any potential models for his art work.

It has been a point that our illustrious journalists, editors and publishers have failed to emphasise. Henson was 'escorted' around the school. Escorted. A body of persons or a single person accompanying another or others for protection, guidance, or courtesy.

I imagine that he was escorted around just like talent scouts, sport scouts, modelling scouts would be when they requested such a visitation. Upon finding a potential talent, I imagine that these scouts would then go to the parents of the child for further discussion.

Things have certainly changed from the days when the likes of 14 year old Kate Moss was approached on a train station in New York.

It really is amazing that this story has emerged once again and our Prime Minister is looking more and more puritanical by the day. If only our arts minister would say something.

But the arts community don't get off scot-free. Whoever thought that a book published by a friend of the artist and written by a militant sympathiser was ever a good idea? It stinks of elitism and is hardly an objective addition to the debate - something which we desperately need. It is a situation almost as bad as the Art Monthly palaver, with just as much misjudgement. 

Speaking in tongues and American evangelism

My head is so full of religion right now, so I apologise if it has been a bit of an overdose.

I just wanted to, however, draw your attention to a fantastic interview by Stephen Crittenden on Radio National's The Religion Report.

If you had any doubts whatsoever about the influence of the neo-conservative elements of Catholicism that was in Sydney last week, you need not go any further than this;


Camille : I'm from Brisbane, and I've just come here to be challenged by World Youth Day I suppose, yeah. I'm part of the Edmund Rice network, and we have an international justice gathering for young people within our network, from obviously across the globe, and then it led into World Youth Day.

Stephen Crittenden: This is in the week before World Youth Day?

Camille : Yes, that's right, yes.

Stephen Crittenden: So how have you found it?

Camille : It's been quite cross-cultural, quite challenging in many ways. Very different to the justice talk that we were engaged in at Mulgoa, so -

Stephen Crittenden: How so?

Camille : Well I think we were kind of looking at how Edmund Rice, who is the founder of the Christian Brothers, and how his charism was very much about social justice, and the same with the actions of Jesus I suppose. Very much about the social justice standing of the oppressed and marginalised in solidarity and I haven't heard much of that here at World Youth Day.

Stephen Crittenden: What have you heard much of?

Camille : Well there's been a lot of testifying and stuff that I would associate with Pentecostal religions and evangelicalism and that sort of thing, that is quite foreign to me back in my home church in my own diocese.

Stephen Crittenden: In Brisbane. Is this mainly American Catholic kids, or where are the testifiers coming from? All over?

Camille : Yes. Surprisingly they're in the catechesis sessions that we've been having. They get up and they tell a story about how they found the Holy Spirit in their lives, or the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they were in times of trouble before that, or someone handed them a Bible or something like that, and they've been infused with the Holy Spirit and they've surrounded themselves with others that are also infused with the Holy Spirit and now their life is great and marvelous. It's kind of something that you would see, that I would usually see when I flick on the TV on a weekend at 7 o'clock in the morning when there's nothing else on. The sort of American TV programs, that's what I associate that experience with.

Stephen Crittenden: How have you found the catechesis sessions?

Camille : In our catechesis sessions? Yeah - you're very much being talked at, rather than talked to and engaged, and it's also very much the official line of the church. When there is Question Time, when questions of how to engage in social justice, and how does the Holy Spirit move in terms of social justice and Jesus' working in justice, or Jesus in oppressed and marginalised people, they're very much vague and they don't really know how to tackle those answers, kind of like they weren't expecting -

Stephen Crittenden: Kids to be interested in those things? What are kids interested in talking about at these sessions?

Camille : Well there's been questions about you know, speaking in tongues, and what's the official line about that, and how do you know that you're touched by the Holy Spirit, and it's kind of like, Well you just know. If you're doing the right things, and if you read the Bible, you should know that you're being touched by the Holy Spirit. Other people like within my own delegation haven't gone to any catechesis sessions or went to one and haven't been back since. There are things out there in the program, it's just that with the organisation of the way it's gone, we were meant to get a program in every part of it, that didn't happen so being able to find those elements of the church that are talking about the things that you are interested in, is very hard when there's limited resources.

Stephen Crittenden: What about the big events. Are you going to go to Stations of the Cross? Have you got close to the Pope yet? Is that why you came? Did you come to see Benny?

Camille : Yes, I think I did. I mean there's an element of curiosity and celebrity there. I went to the opening mass and I went to the Pope's arrival yesterday and was about 100 or so metres away from him.

Stephen Crittenden: And as a young Australian Catholic, what does Pope Benedict mean to you?

Camille : Oh, he's the head of the church, so yes. In terms of admiration, I mean what he was saying in his address yesterday, he talked about social justice and he talked about advocacy for women's issues.

Stephen Crittenden: It was very wide-ranging, wasn't it?

Camille : Yes. I think actually I was more inspired by what he had said than what I heard - definitely- in the catechesis sessions. I think there might be a disconnect with what the Pope was saying and what's coming through in catechesis.

Stephen Crittenden: Thank you very much for talking to us.

Camille : No worries, thank you.


For more WYD fun, go to the program website.

Wave that red flag

There is nothing like a bit of media driven controversy around a theatre production is there? And somehow, young Sydney-based theatre director Shannon Murphy seems to know how to pick them.

Yesterday, the Daily Telegraph published a pretty irresponsible and simplified article about a play that premiered at the Old Fitzroy theatre last night.

"THE murderers of British toddler Jamie Bulger are being given a sympathetic treatment in a controversial new comic play opening in Sydney tonight," it started.

"The play The Age of Consent presents a series of monologues by a character named Timmy, who is based on the two Jamie Bulger killers Robert Thompson and Jon Venables," it went on.

Ninemsn picked up on the story and paraphrased it a bit in an article entitled, "Bulger killers get sympathetic treatment".

(It's almost like something out of Media Watch.)

The article then goes on to say, "the boys who murdered a British toddler will be portrayed as victims in a theatre comedy that opens in Sydney tonight."

Aside from all the Hettyesque wowser reactions on the Daily Telegraph website which included statements like;

you have got to be sh%$$ing me, what is this world coming to when we start to 'pity' child killers! Posted by: Diana of penrith

Ok this is just a sick joke how distasteful to say the least.
Posted by: what the of brisvegas

Maybe she wouldn't be so sympathetic if it were her child that was beaten to death.Let's hope for her children's sake she never has to find out.Bring back hanging's I say.String them both up!
Posted by: mumof2 of sydney

This play should be banned. Oh but its 'art'! In a world where crimes against children are increasing at a frightening rate, I find it sickening beyond words that this black 'comedy' has been allowed.
Posted by: Rose

I think Shannon Murphy and Peter Morris are the victims here. Victims of their own stupidity and overblown egos.
Posted by: GJ of Glenfield

I am absolutely outraged! These killers be child or not don¿t deserve any recognition whatsoever. To create a black comedy play based on such a crime is morally wrong and plain insensitive.
Posted by: Esther Barndon of Perth


And in exactly in the same way as the Henson affair, ALL of these people made these comments without having either seen nor having read the play. What a pack of gullible fools.

Of course, it does nothing like what is alleged but frankly, the hyped up and misinformed article from the Telegraph and Ninemsn has now meant that the Old Fitzroy was inundated with hits to their website, emails and a sudden surge in bookings.

You couldn't have organised a better publicity stunt - especially for a play that is over seven years old and has already been performed in Australia.

And I saw it last night and my review is to come. But I can say it is an intriguing and excellently executed piece of theatre with absolutely brilliant performances from two actors I have never seen before. I highly recommend it, especially if you're a raving right wing lunatic.

What's the media playing at?

The below image was published in today's Sunday Telegraph on a story around 'pre-teens' getting 'fake tans'. I have blacked out certain parts in the event that any prosecution occurs and to keep the child in question anonymous.

It is naturally of some concern. I will be seeking some legal advice on whether to make a complaint to the NSW Police. The photo online is not as revealing as the paper version which shows most of the girls body in what could be called a 'blue swimsuit'.




Quoting the salon owner in the article it is said that "for the young, young ones under 10, it's for special occasions or going away for summer holidays, or photos or something where they want to be tanned." Just let kids be kids I say.

The very thought that 'pre-teens' getting 'fake tans' is endorsed by the newspaper is also of concern. Photographing them with large hoses pointed directly at them and putting them in the newspaper is of even greater concern. Particularly when we know that newspapers are so conscientious about pictures on display.

Marvellous

Those Art Life blog people. Bloody marvellous. They have posted a "photo of a ball of dividing cells from the moment a zygote implanted itself on a uterus wall".

Hetty Johnston, Andrew Bolt and Kevin Rudd eat your heart out.

Art Life goes on, "although the zygote in question is currently still too young to understand the full ramifications of this decision, we feel that by exploiting these eight cells we will dignify a debate that for too long has been dominated by hysterical sections of the media clamouring for 'controversy'."

And so it goes.

CLICK HERE.

Art Monthly editor plays into Hetty's hands

As first published in Crikey today.

Editor Maurice O'Riordan is a total fool for putting the image of a naked young girl on the latest cover of Art Monthly. After so much effort, so many carefully crafted messages and an industry united, this boofhead comes along and inflames an already sensitive public issue.

Not only is his decision misguided, it lacks a total understanding of how to influence public policy and play the media game. It is so misguided that today we have a situation where every single person who first condemned artist Bill Henson is now singing in unison against the artistic community with calls for laws and protocols to be introduced.

Those in the arts community have been left standing with their pants around their ankles and can now expect a royal bollocking from Hetty Johnston and her Bravehearts wowser club. In fact, the visual arts community was abuzz over the weekend, with one source revealing that on this particular occasion, they might not get behind their own -- in fact, they might leave O'Riordan out to dry.

You would expect an editor, a journalist, someone who is engaged with the written word and with the art of debate to be a little more tactful, but it appears that O'Riordan has lost all perspective on this issue.

The Australia Council for the Arts has now been left like a shag on a rock trying to, again, defend the integrity of artists. The council’s CEO Kathy Keele was even resigned to saying that "continuing to argue extreme positions is not creating any greater clarity."

Keele is absolutely correct and O’Riordan finds himself in the same camp as Johnston. To successfully engage with a debate of this magnitude you have to see that there are always two sides to any story and you must respect the opposing side. O'Riordan has lost that respect and by trying to rub Hetty Johnston's nose in the Henson debate he will ultimately lose.

Arts Minister Garrett hit the nail on the head saying the magazine was being needlessly provocative.

Let's put this into context. During the Henson debate, it was clear that the gallery's decision to put the images online and on the invitations was naive to say the least. But the arts community got behind Henson and the gallery to defend their right to freely create an exhibition of the photographs.

O'Riordan, by taking art out of context like the gallery did with Henson’s photographs a month or so ago and placing an image that could concern the community onto a magazine has unnecessarily thrown fuel onto the fire.

And now the proponents of arts censorship are on board. They have had time to re-form, re-think and re-formulate their public comments. You can’t imagine a worse case scenario.

Kevin Rudd said yesterday, "we're talking about the innocence of little children here. A little child cannot answer for themselves about whether they wish to be depicted in this way."

NSW Premier Morris Iemma chimed in, "this is an issue of child protection."

And Johnston led the chorus, "this is manufactured by adults for the pleasure of adults, the financial benefit of adults, whatever it is. This is an adult desire being projected on to children."

According to the Sydney Morning Herald the magazine editor, Maurice O'Riordan, "could not be contacted for comment yesterday". That’s hopefully because he knows that he has made a very stupid mistake.

From the weekend...

I know I am a bit slow off the mark, but I am just catching up on some weekend newspaper reading and came across two articles of interest.

The first is an article from SAJ pin-up girl Miranda Devine as she puts her pen to paper about the troubled Federal Government back-bencher Belinda Neal.

This would make a welcome addition or scene for the film I proposed last week. (When will someone take up my idea??)

In the article, Devine goes on to defend Neal;

"We don't like to think of ourselves as bullies, but the pile-on demolition of Belinda Neal in recent weeks shows that the mob will always find a victim."

She then draws a bow the length of a rugby pitch to a letter that some poor kid wrote into the Geelong Advertiser who complains about the bullying he has to endure at school.

What a delicious irony when someone like Devine defends a person like Neal (who is a member of the NSW ALP no less) and then accuses the media and society of 'bullying'. Talk about rose-tinted glasses.

The second, and much more interesting column I discovered was one by David Malouf on the back-page of The Australian's Review section. It is the most sensible thing written about the whole Bill Henson-Hetty Johnson affair and is a timely review of what happened only a few weeks ago.

Malouf proffers a clear perspective of the role of art in society by stating that;

"We live in a complex society made up of people with different interests. Some of them, sport for instance, are majority interests. Others, like the high arts, are easily categorised and dismissed as elitist. But democracy, and egalitarianism too, is about spread, not the superior rights of the majority; government support of the arts is not an optional extra. It is a necessary fact of democracy, of egalitarianism and spread."

He then goes on to give a clear critique of the Henson's work;

"What we discover in ourselves after long contemplation of a Henson image for instance, after our original astonishment at its formal beauty, the subtle gradations of colour in the skin tones, the play with light and shade (and this will be only the first of many astonishments at Henson's technical virtuosity and the magic it produces), is the mixture of emotions all this arouses in us; especially if what we have before us is one of his tranquil but inward-looking nudes, or one of those images in which young people are lyrically engaged with one another in a moment of intimacy that commands our attention, is in fact mesmerising, but which we feel we ought not to be privy to. A sense, to begin with, of the immediacy and touching unknowableness of these familiar creatures; a sense of awe, too, at what the human animal, in all its otherness and essential mystery, may be, beyond the animal and physical; a sense, now that looking has triumphed over our inclination towards not-looking, of reverence, of being haunted by an image that, once we have fully experienced it, we cannot easily dismiss. But all this comes only after long looking and contemplating. Of giving ourselves over to the work."

And then the wonderful clincher, which I cannot help but feel is aimed like a bazooka directly at Hetty Johnston and Chairman Rudd;

"Of course we may still find a work unworthy of the artist, or simply bad; but we have first to do our own work of attending; of reading, looking, listening. To "know" that a work is bad, or revolting, before you have actually looked at it, is to show no regard for the artist and to say you have no interest in or regard for art. Henson's 13-year-old nude may well be erotic. So is a lot of the greatest art, and much else that we think of as belonging only to spirit and intellect. It is a sick mind whose only response to the erotic is disgust or shame, and a sick or hypocritical society that has no respect for Eros as one of the forces that makes us what we are."


It's interesting to look at Miranda Devine's new found issue of bullying and place it on the Bill Henson-Hetty Johnson debate.

Who was the bully in all of that? Was it Devine who started the debate with her article Moral backlash over sexing up of our children?

Or was it Hetty Johnston? She is about to move to Sydney to make sure she can keep hounding Henson who she believes his photos are "exploitative ... of children".

Or is it Henson? Or is it the arts community, yelling Johnston down at a recent arts forum at the Museum of Contemporary Art?

Maybe Henson should have just said from the outset, "Don't you know who I am?" But then again, Henson ain't no Belinda Neal (or even a member of the ALP Right).

Oops-a-daisy!

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.

READ MORE

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.

READ MORE

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.

Opposition Whip, Whips Up Some Creativity

Since the Opposition Whip is on such a creative bender, let's help him out.

All the best arty farty ideas we can come up with and Sydney Arts Journo will email him them by the end of next week.

Crikey found it today and added this piece of gold;

Arty farty types -- got any other suggestions for controversial art installations, besides Parry's 'Ecstacy Tablets On Canvas No 304' or 'Ruminations on an AK47 Assault Rifle'?

Just click on the media release to read the text. And this is not a joke. He sent this out - typos, ideas and all.

Some real police work

I really don't want to write any more about this Bill Henson stuff, but this morning on the ABC's AM programme, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty practically admitted that the debate around the Bill Henson affair was farcical.

The interview was regarding seventy people who have been arrested in a nationwide child pornography bust called Operation Centurion, not affiliated with the Henson investigation.

The AFP along with state police forces had been looking at paedophile communities online and 'how they trade images of child pornography on the internet'.

"And this is the issue Tony," he said. "For the 2,800 IP addresses that were looking at these images, they're continuing the abuse of these children. And these children ... these children aren't in passive poses ... there's been some debate recently about art and child pornography. These are children that are being abused and in some of the images there are adults and there is no doubt, no question this is child pornography," he said.

Gerard, Kevin, Morris, Hetty, Miranda, Andrew and Paul - Do you get it now??

No, Gerard

I'm sorry Gerard, but once again you are wrong. The arts community didn't get in a tizz because Kevin Rudd said, "That's the first time I've seen them. I think they're revolting."

Or because the Prime Minister went on to say "kids deserve to have the innocence of their childhood protected".

It was because he said something which you so convenientlty left out of today's 'opinion' piece;

"Whatever the artistic view of the merits of that sort of stuff - frankly I don't think there are any..."

(My goodness, how often do we have to explain ourselves? And he runs an 'institute'?!)

And then you freely call us 'condescending' because 40 odd representatives from the community say that politicians have "every right to their personal opinions; however, as political leaders they are influential in forming public opinion, and we believe their words should be well considered".

Gerard, your whole piece bases itself on a convenient omission and is undone when you complain about Michael Gow who "bemoaned the fact that 'the Prime Minister who invited us to Canberra has questioned the abilities and credentials of a major Australian artist'. In fact, Rudd had done neither. All he had done was to describe some Henson photos shown to him as 'revolting'."

No he didn't Gerard. No he didn't. Read the transcipt.

Hetty Johnston on Crikey

It is interesting that two big bits of information have come out today regarding Bill Henson. Firstly and as reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Classification Board "assessed five Henson images taken from media websites and rated them all 'G' or 'very mild'".

And secondly, Hetty Johnston from Bravehearts has given her right of reply on Crikey after all the bollocksing last week.

I encourage you to read the entire article so that we don't get accused of 'taking he rout of context'. For me, her argument rests on this paragraph at the end of the piece;

What of the pedophiles who are watching this with great interest? Can they call themselves ‘artists’ too? Define an ‘artist’. Can they then take photos of naked children and call it art? What about their defense when they are caught with s-xual images of children and claim its research for their artistic endeavors? How do we prove this is not the case? This is a dangerous scenario for our children and families.

Her article is rational and well put and explains much of the good work she must do. But I tell you what - and I repeat something I said earlier - I absolutely refuse to live in a world dictated to by a fear of those with mental illnesses such as paedophilia. She may have been right about Hollingsworth, but that doesn't make right about this.

Leave me out of this nanny state. What if? What if? What if?

Enough already.

Which brings me to another petition that is now available if you share my sentiments on this issue. Apparently Theatre Notes "had many requests from people who would also like to put their names to the The Open Letter in Support of Bill Henson". If you would like to do so, go here.

And don't forget the other online petition that is gathering a big swell of support.

Go on, be a Braveheart like our Mel. To quote William Wallace, "they'll never take our freedom!"

In reflekshun

Of all the comments made on SAJ over the Henson scandal, this comment from 'Gaz' went straight to the top as my personal favourite.

So just in case you missed it, here 'tis again;

"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."


Speaking of 'vision', below is a picture which accompanied a great Crikey article.... I just couldn't resist...

Well, on the bright side

The magazine that pulped $100,000 worth of print because it contained images of Bill Henson's work had a job advertisement in yesterday's The Australian;

ART WORLD
A NEW ART MAGAZINE FOR AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND
Following our hugely successful launch in February, Art World magazine is looking for a number of talented people to join our enthusiastic and highly dedicated team based in East Sydney.
DEPUTY EDITOR
FEATURES EDITOR
Working closely with the Editor, both positions involve originating ideas, commissioning writers and photographers, liaising with curators, artists and galleries, and writing features, subbing and proof-reading. These positions would suit creative, ambitious and motivated people with relevant magazine experience and a keen interest in and knowledge of contemporary art... and a sense of humour.

A sense of humour indeed.

Future PM's wife defends Henson

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?!]

Nothing like a bit of solidarity

Hopefully this will get some headlines - the 2020 Creative Australia Delegation - lead by Alison Croggon has written an open letter in support of Bill Henson.

It was distributed to media outlets this afternoon and invites "the Prime Minister, Mr Rudd, and the NSW Premier, Mr Iemma, to rethink their public comments about Mr Henson’s work."

Thank god Cate Blanchett was on the list! After all my banging away, it was getting quite exhausting and I was running out of ideas for headlines and photos to use for blog posts.

She was joined by approximately forty other signatories (out of the 100 or so delegates) who make up what could be the makings of a new arts lobby group. And what a way to enter the fray.

It's an impressive list and well worth a read. Marvellous.

(UPDATED: It is already having an effect. This is what I was talking about. And you should make sure you check out Alison's blog. The flies have gathered. Media coverage added as it comes to hand. Newer articles at the bottom;

AFP - Blanchett backs censored artist

SYDNEY (AFP) — Hollywood star Cate Blanchett Tuesday joined prominent arts figures in condemning moves to prosecute a renowned photographer on obscenity charges, saying it damaged Australia's cultural reputation.


Daily Telegraph - Cate Blanchett backs Bill Henson

ACTRESS Cate Blanchett and other prominent Australians who attended Kevin Rudd's 2020 Summit have backed controversial photographer Bill Henson, saying charging him would damage Australia's cultural reputation.


Nine MSN - Cate Blanchett fights for embattled artist

Cate Blanchett and her fellow 2020 Summit Creative Stream members have thrown their weight behind embattled


SMH - Henson 2020 backlash

Cate Blanchett is among a number of prominent Australians from the 2020 Summit who have come out in solidarity with artist Bill Henson.


Sky News - Henson art petition

Actress Cate Blanchett has signed an open letter to Prime Minster Kevin Rudd, urging him to reconsider his stance on a series of controversial photographs by artist Bill Henson.


SMH - Big names speak up for Henson as other galleries remove works

AS THE high-profile defence of Bill Henson intensified yesterday, police admitted it might still be weeks before any charges are laid. The artist has yet to be interviewed.


The Australian - Cate Blanchett calls on Kevin Rudd to soften Bill Henson art remarks

KEVIN Rudd's handpicked arts mentor Cate Blanchett yesterday co-signed an open letter urging the Prime Minister to rethink his public comments about artist Bill Henson's work.


Herald Sun - Cate Blanchett's mates hit Kevin Rudd over Bill Henson

PREMIER John Brumby has defended the PM's attack on artist Bill Henson's work as "revolting" amid calls for a retraction by artists.


Michelle Grattan in The Age - Now it's the artists who are revolting

THE trouble, if you are a Prime Minister, with mixing politics and art is that every now and then the artists bite the politicians.


SMH - Turnbull condemns Henson raids

Malcolm Turnbull has criticised the police raids of galleries displaying the work of photographer Bill Henson.


Elizabeth Farrelly SMH - Adults overboard in the frenzy to sniff out smut

But let me come clean. I don't much like Henson's work. I find it cloying and slightly disturbing. Treacly. Unnecessarily Norman Lindsayesque. This I share with Morris Iemma, Frank Sartor and Kevin Rudd. But that's where the common ground ends. Unlike them, I know that individual dislike, or even general disgust, isn't the point.


Andrew Bolt - Herald Sun

THERE must be excellent reasons to let an artist strip and photograph a 13-year-old girl so rich men can hang pictures of her bared breasts over their beds.


ABC Online - Police chief rejects artists' Henson outcry

The New South Wales Police Commissioner has rebuffed criticism from 40 of Australia's arts leaders over the removal of controversial photographs in Sydney.


Guardian UK - These photographs aren't sexual: they're just human

Bill Henson is one of the very few indisputably great contemporary Australian artists - a photographer of astonishing talent, whose work is held in the collections of the National Gallery in Canberra, the Guggenheim Museum, the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, and, in an irony that will soon become apparent, the High Court of Australia.


Crikey - Henson: time for the police to put up or back off

How long does it take for the New South Wales Police and their legal advisers to decide whether or not to charge Bill Henson with offences under Commonwealth or State law? The coppers have had the Henson pictures they took off the wall of Ros Oxley’s Paddington Gallery for almost a week now and yet no charges have been laid against Henson or the Gallery.


Crikey - Henson schmenson, take a look at Dolly

Why is it that "artistic" images of a young girl have created such uproar, and yet s-xualised images of children in the advertising, media and clothing industries remain effectively unchallenged? Have we become so desensitised that we only respond to overt nakedness?


NEWS Limited - Henson photos offensive - Scipione

THE NSW Police Commissioner has described Bill Henson's controversial photographs of naked children as "entirely objectionable". Charges are expected to be laid after police last week seized 20 Henson photographs of a naked girl and boy, believed to be aged 12 and 13, from Sydney's Roslyn Oxley9 gallery.



New York Times - Nude Photos Ignite Australian Debate

Cate Blanchett joined forces on Tuesday with prominent people in the arts to protest plans by the police to initiate an obscenity prosecution over images by Bill Henson, an eminent photographer, that feature nude 12- and 13-year-olds, Agence France-Presse reported.


El Universal - Se solidariza Blanchett con el fotógrafo Bill Henson

La actriz australiana Cate Blanchett expresó hoy su solidaridad con su compatriota el fotógrafo Bill Henson, cuyas imágenes de adolescentes desnudas han levantado una fuerte polémica sobre qué es arte y qué pornografía.


ABC Online - Henson photos must abide by laws: Brandis

Shadow Attorney-General George Brandis says there has to be balance between artistic freedom and the law. Opposition frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull has confirmed that he has two works by controversial photographer Bill Henson and he has strongly defended artistic freedom.


Reuters - Cate Blanchett and Australian PM hit rocky patch

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's cosy affair with the nation's arts community, in particular Hollywood actress Cate Blanchett, has hit a rocky patch over an exhibition of naked photographs of young girls.


Anglican Media Australia - In your outrage, don’t forget the subject

Once upon a time, a just-pubescent girl stripped naked in front of a middle-aged man, who gazed at her physique, judged its best angles, and how her image might best be presented to the world, and he photographed her. Hold that thought in your head.

The Censorship Begins

"CRIMINAL investigations into Bill Henson have widened to include previous work by the controversial photographer, after police received complaints about several Henson works on display at a regional gallery" the Sydney Morning Herald reports today.

"Police advised the Albury Regional Art Gallery to take down several photographs by the artist dating back to 1985, after they received a complaint from the public about 'inappropriate' images, which they are investigating," it says.

It has also come to my attention that a national art magazine, which had a Bill Henson image on the front cover was pulled from shelves on Friday.

If what I have been told is true, this could be the first of many acts of self-censorship which relate directly to the possible charge of Bill Henson. This is one of the worst possible outcomes to this whole affair.

I have been trying to find out what magazine it is, but there is a wall of silence around galleries and the visual arts community. If anyone knows anything about it please let me know. (UPDATE: Wall of silence no more. Good old Katrina Strickland from the the Australian Financial Review today revealed the magazine was a new bimonthly Art World. And it has cost the publisher $100,000 to pulp the 25,000 copies 'because it featured works confiscated by the NSW Police).

Meanwhile, the debate keeps humming along.

In Crikey, Clive Hamilton follows up on his Friday treatise saying;
"All art engages with culture, at least good art does. Henson has been praised by critics and supporters for challenging our sensibilities and pushing the boundaries of social acceptability. So why is Henson, by all accounts a garrulous man, refusing to defend his work?"

Gary Sauer-Thompson in Junk for Code says;
"So Henson's work has been chosen by moral and cultural conservatives to make a stand against postmodernism, nihilism, pornography, consumerism etc etc. Not one again that there no argument for his slippery slope claim that it is art that has lead to a world surrounded by crass, vulgar and obscene images rather than the capitalist market."

Paul Sheehan of The Herald also weighs in;
"For many years he has explored the beauty of youth and the awakening of sensuality, which are legitimate subjects for art and always have been. He has inhabited this terrain thoughtfully. His latest exhibition appears to continue in this vein. Which is why the decision taken by the police to confiscate a number of his photographs was an overreaction, even if the electric jolt of public unease he has received in recent days is justified."

The Age has an editorial today which argues;
"No longer can one claim what might be called the Caravaggio defence, whereby works depicting prepubescent nudity are for the eyes of a limited numbers of beholders."

Phillip Adams in The Australian sits on the opposite;
"Having crusaded against what I've branded corporate pedophilia for years, Henson is the last person I'd be charging. His esoteric and melancholy photographs for the art gallery elite are not the problem. It's in mass media that our kids are sexualised, that childhood is shortened and short-changed, rendered erotic for adult fun and profit."

Meanwhile, the Museum of Contemporary Art came out with their opinion on the matter;
"In response to the recent seizure of works by artist Bill Henson from his current exhibition at Roslyn Oxley 9 Gallery in Paddington, Sydney, the Museum of Contemporary Art wishes to issue the following statement:

"The Museum of Contemporary Art deplores the seizing of work by respected contemporary artist Bill Henson by the police and the threat of charges against the artist and gallery owners Roslyn and Tony Oxley.

"MCA Director Elizabeth Ann Macgregor said: 'Throughout history, artists have dealt with controversial subjects. Indeed one of roles of contemporary art is to explore sometimes difficult issues that are relevant to modern society. It is surely not a matter for the police or the courts.'

"'To quote NSW Premier Neville Wran when he instructed the police to return the seized works of Juan Davila in 1982: 'I do not think art has got anything to do with the vice squad'. Public debate on controversial issues and the role of art, particularly in the fast changing world of new technology, can and should take place in the public arena - the seizing of artworks should not.'"

From the horse's mouth

Leo Schofield interviewing Bill Henson on Ovation (that Channel no one can afford to watch):