Bill Henson is almost the only major contemporary artist in Australia to date. His works are amazing, quiet and still... exploring the strange spaces between adolescence and adulthood, dark and light, nature and industry. With and almost romantic view of the harder phases of life, his large scale works afford you to stop, linger... dream of that terrible space that we've all been in - Awkward, unaware of what was going on, in our lives or in our bodies, or in the adjustment to life today. Remind you of where you've come, where you are going.... with the subtext showing his deep obsession with the experience of human growth and the transition of child to adult. His photographs are grand scale cinematic endeavors, surreal and dark, moody, technically flawless and heavy with metaphor for the dark side of modern human condition, a society beyond repair - resulting in the tension seen in each frame.
Henson has been showing these works for over 25 years, same themes, some of the same images, in major exhibitions all over the world.
Only now they have been deemed "pornographic". A recent exhibition at Roslyn Oxley9 gallery was shut down and works seized with a warrant issues under section 91G of the NSW Crimes Act, which prohibits the use of children for pornographic purposes. A Superintendent said the works seized depicted a child under the age of 16 "in a sexual context". A complaint made by a sexual assault advocacy group Bravehearts member Hetty Johnston, lead the police to investigate. "I did make a complaint yesterday, absolutely," Ms Johnston said. "I asked them to prosecute, both the gallery and the photographer, but I'd like to see the parents as well looked in to. What parent in their right mind would allow their 12- or 13-year-old to strip off naked and display themselves all over the internet? That's not in the interests of the child. What's happening here is that the arts community have felt that they've been able to get away with this under the guise of art for a number of years, and I think this is the community drawing a line in the sand and saying, 'Enough's enough'."
Obviously, there's a clear definition needed. Pornography is the explicit depiction of sexual subject matter, with the sole intention of sexually exciting the viewer. I don't see Henson's intention in that definition. There is no sexualization going on in these images, and Henson has been making images that challenge notions of adolesence for years now, so why the sudden uproar? Why all of a sudden is this work being called "Porn" or even worse, "Child Porn"? Some of these works have been circulating the art world for 25 years.
Personally I don't get it. Hensons work has been an inspiration in an almost cultural void of artists in Australia for many a young emerging artist. To me this seems like a step backward for all involved in the art world. "It's child pornography by any name you want to call it," Hetty said. "At the end of the day, these are images of naked young girls - that's illegal and it's inappropriate." (What about the boys?!) Uneducated people like dear Hetty Johnston will prevent cultural growth in Australia by condemning the very figureheads of the Australian artistIc society. It will also increase the long held reputation of Australia being a country of prudish philistines and we've to thank Hetty and yes-man-I-want-to-please-everyone-Rudd for stunting our cultural growth.
I've been watching all this happen since Thursday in disbelief. I can't believe it really. I didn't realise I lived in such a backwards country until now. It actually leaves me dumbfounded.
