Just what do you make of the raid by police on the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney and confiscation of 21 photographs immediately prior to the opening of an exhibition by internationally renowned artist Bill Henson? Or the stated intention to bring obscenity charges against, presumably, the artist and gallery?
When the State starts brandishing the Arts censorship cudgel my reaction is usually reflexive and unequivocal condemnation. I say ‘usually’, because there are some cases that challenge the validity of a black and white stance on censorship. Freedom of artistic expression is vital to any society that calls itself democratic – except, I’d argue, where that freedom erodes democratic principles and/or the founding laws that uphold them.
In snuff movies, for example, the lives of those who involuntarily ‘star’ in them are extinguished – who but a fellow psychopath would march under placards of protest in defence of a director who claimed artistic license to murder? In my own rhetorical interests, this example is about as extreme as it gets. However, while I have not heard of any recent defence of snuff movies as ‘art’, the historical precedent exists in literature.
I refer to the works of the Marquis De Sade. Sade is said to have pushed the boundaries of hedonistic libertarianism to torturing and killing prostitutes for sexual gratification, and to have drawn on this experience in his pornographic writings. Continue reading Pedophilia – Or Pedophilia Phobia? →
