|
 ROUND TWO
As reported by ABC News, Australian artists are defending the controversial decision of Art Monthly magazine to run a photograph of a naked child on its front cover.
Martyn Jolly, head of photography and media arts at the Australian National University and co-author of an article on the Bill Henson saga published in the same issue, has stated that putting the photo on the front cover was just “business as usual”.
“It could be a provocation or it could be simply saying, ‘No we aren’t going to … buckle’,” he said. “We aren’t going to let this small pressure group dictate what we can and can’t show. We aren’t going to let the tabloid media, who are always wanting to create media panics, dictate what we can and can’t show. And we aren’t going to let politicians, who are always wanting to jump on populist bandwagons, dictate what we can and can’t show.”
I strongly agree with Jolly insofar as Art Monthly had a duty to reignite the debate of children in art. And as far as Kevin Rudd, Hetty Johnson and the rest of their puritanical clan are concerned – they made their bed, now they can lie in it.
“I guess if you’re the editor of a magazine, which is meant to be reporting on Australia on a month-by-month basis, and this has been the biggest thing in Australian art for a long time, you’d be [neglecting] your duty if you didn’t actually discuss the debate,” Jolly asserted.
Art Monthly receives funding from the Australian Council, as well as the Federal and ACT governments.
“[It’s] a huge leap to suggest that a photograph of a young child is inherently pornographic if it is displayed publicly,” ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope said.
“That’s a concept that causes me enormous difficulty.”
At last – a politician who is speaking sense. The perverse irony of this whole situation is that it is the police, the politicians and the so-called ‘children’s rights activists’ like Hetty Johnson that are doing the real damage here. They are the ones exploiting these children for the sake of their own conservative moral agendas. They are the ones who have turned these children into models of pornography. They are the ones shamelessly sensationalising these images.
And here’s the hot tip. When these children look back on this whole nasty situation, they won’t regret the photos being taken in the first place, they won’t feel anger towards Henson et al, and they won’t object to their beautiful photos being exhibited in galleries. BUT they will regret that a group of Orwellian self-appointed guardians of morality manufactured them into victims of exploitation. They will feel angry that a group of police officers ransacked a gallery. And above all, they will feel betrayed that the very people who were claiming to protect them instead turned their photos into pornography.
You wait.
 ANNOYED BUT NOT ANNOYING
Anti-World Youth Day t-shirts are selling fast following the NSW government’s ban on ‘annoying’ pilgrims. As listed by SBS News, here are ten of the most popular slogans.
- You can fine me $5,500 … But I still won’t believe in God
- WYD08: We close 300 roads so 300,000 can close their minds
- Good luck Pope – I’ve been waiting for a miracle at Randwick for years
- “and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who wear t-shirts that cause annoyance or inconvenience...”
- I survived a Christian Brothers education
- Oh no, I stepped in Dogma
- Too many Christians, not enough lions – Randwick 2008
- annoying & inconvenient
- I’ve been touched by the Catholic Church, so where’s my $2 billion?
- World Youth Day: You can cross yourself, but not the city
I’m yet to choose my slogan of choice, but it appears an anonymous artist has produced a new series of artworks in response to World Youth Day for free download and distribution – go to eggbenedict.org
As one letter writer in the Herald quipped last Wednesday, I’ve only got two words to sum up my feelings on this whole ban on annoying pilgrims thing: JESUS CHRIST. I’ve had it up to the rosaries.
 HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!
Former Senator Jesse Helms, perhaps the most notoriously racist and homophobic politician in the history of the United States, has died at the age of 86.
Joe from Joe.My.God. put together a collection of Helms’ more horrifying quotes:
- On threatening the life of a sitting president: “Mr Clinton better watch out if he comes down here. He’d better have a bodyguard.”
- On gays and AIDS: “It’s their deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct that is responsible for the disease.”
- On equality: “I’ve been portrayed as a caveman by some. That’s not true. I’m a conservative progressive, and that means I think all men are equal, be they slants, beaners, or niggers.”
- On education: “Your tax dollars are being used to pay for grade-school classes that teach our children that cannibalism, wife-swapping and murder of infants and the elderly are acceptable behavior.”
- On civil rights: “The Negro cannot count forever on the kind of restraint that’s thus far left him free to clog the streets, disrupt traffic, and interfere with other men’s rights.”
- On journalists: “The New York Times and Washington Post are both infested with homosexuals themselves. Just about every person down there is a homosexual or lesbian.”
- On the Duke University students upset by Martin Luther King’s assassination: “They should ask their parents if it would be all right for their son or daughter to marry a Negro.”
Now usually I err on the side of showing respect for the dead, but that man can rot in hell.
 |
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
