Archive for the 'Rants' Category

01
Jul
09

Pigeon Holed

By Jennie 3 Comments
Categories: Nudes, Rambles and Rants
Tags:

Stance, a4 Watercolor and Pencil on Paper by Jennie Rosenbaum
Stance- a4 Watercolor and Pencil on Paper by Jennie Rosenbaum

I have felt pigeon holed lately by my writing. I am building a reputation for myself as a nude activist. Someone who stands up time and again to state that the nude is not porn and is not always about sex. I don’t believe the nude is necessarily sexual but i also think that there is a place for sexual expression in art without it being porn.

i have felt as though i am bound by this stance. it has stopped me from writing about certain topics, even from painting more explicit works. I feel like cannot write about my own sexuality or artists that I admire who do create sexualized nudes for fear of diluting my message or scaring off readers. but, do you know, there also comes a time when I have said almost everything there needs to be said on a particular subject, I don’t wish to repeat myself, I want to keep my blog fresh and new, rather than rehashing the same old tired arguments every time a nude is censored.

and what if a week or two go by without any censorship of nudes? what do I write about then? this blog was started initially to be a journal of my evolution as an artist and my developing career. but it started to get away from me, as writing often does, and take on it’s own life. I think there is room for both, I think there is room for a whole gamut of topics.

I have been thinking for a while now on the direction of this blog. I really enjoy writing, but lately I have suffered from the bane of all writers, writers block. so, in an effort to kick start my ideas and hopefully re-energize my blog, I am going to turn the question over to you, my readers – what would you like to see me write more about?

03
Jun
09

Nude Madonna and guy fall short of expectations

By Jennie 1 Comment
Categories: News, Nudes and Rants
Tags: , , , , ,

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No sale for nude Madonna and Guy from BBC News

Madonna & Guy, an admittedly rather unflattering likeness by Peter Howson, was estimated to rake in between £15,000 ($24,603) and £22,000 on Saturday at McTear’s, the Glasgow-based Scottish auction house, but didn’t sell — despite generating unprecedented press coverage, a McTear’s representative said. The painting had been commissioned by a Scottish collector in 2005 and was one of many the Scottish artist had painted of Madonna.

[From Nude Madonna Painting Fails to Find Buyer - ARTINFO.com]

this is an excellent example of ‘it’s nude and it’s a celebrity therefore it must be art!’ throw in two celebrities and a whole lot of hype and you will get this auction. but no amount of twitter buzz, news sites and publicity will turn this painting into an attractive and desirable work of art. I notice that the leading buzz was very careful to mention the names of Madonna and Guy Ritchie as much as possible but you had to really really dig to find a picture of the piece.

having a celebrity as a subject is usually good for reputation boosting, buzz and moneys in the bank. and Peter Howson has received a lot of hype and exhibition requests due to this series. I feel a need to say however, that probably having the piece closely resemble the celebrities in question might work a bit better. Without the hype I would never have known who those people were supposed to be. I do like some of the tones and shadows used, but overall I find myself unsurprised that this piece did not sell. perhaps people are not as all out celebrity obsessed as we thought.

06
May
09

nudity in art – equivalent to racism, violence and blasphemy?

By Jennie 4 Comments
Categories: Nudes and Rants
Tags:
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Artist Margaret Tuckey, of Banksia Park, with one of her exhibits for the Gully art show. Pic: Neale Winter

One of the artists rejected last year for her nude submission to the Tea Tree Gully Council’s exhibition has decided to enter another nude this year, this time of a reclining male.

Margaret Tuckey, whose nude entry was rejected last year, said the show would be a “bland” display of still lifes and landscapes under new guidelines and if they knock back her latest painting of a nude man “they don’t even know what art is”.

The new guidelines, unanimously endorsed last week by the council’s social inclusion committee, will cover entries in the next show, to be held at the Civic Centre in August.

The committee decided the council had a duty of care to protect Civic Centre visitors from any pieces of artwork “depicting images containing perceived violence, racism, sexism, nudity, blasphemy, cultural discrimination and other issues that may be seen to be discriminatory or offensive”.

Artist Margaret Tuckey protests TTG Council censorship of nudes

Now I don’t know about you, but I love that nudity is considered to be equivalent to violence, racism, sexism, blasphemy and cultural discrimination.. they are all so clearly related. if people are seen to be nude, what on earth will become of us then? wont somebody think of the children?

you don’t hate children…do you?

the poll at the bottom of this article quotes that passage word for word. not ‘are nudes in art offensive’ not ’should artistic nudes be included’ but “Do you agree with the Tea Tree Gully Council’s decision to ban “images containing perceived violence, racism, sexism, nudity, blasphemy, cultural discrimination and other issues” at its annual art show?’ thus putting them all on an equal footing.

I hope the council revisits it’s policies, but I doubt it will. I hope Margaret Tuckey gets her work in this time, but I doubt she will. mostly I hope that the council and the article that I have quoted here will look into their wording and see the suggestiveness and implications present in the wording of this phrase, but I doubt that will happen either. Because this has become a point of bureaucracy. and the reality is that nobody wins when bureaucracy has it’s way.

09
Apr
09

wondering what to do with your economic stimulus package? – Stimulate an artist!

By Jennie Leave a Comment
Categories: Rants and Selling Art
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Introspection - pencil and watercolors on paper A3
Introspection – pencil and watercolors on paper A3 by Jennie Rosenbaum

every day we are faced with new information about the slowing economy, belt tightening news and now, the economic stimulus packages. these bonus’ are given out to taxpayers so that they can be put back into our consumer driven economy and help keep it afloat. the problem with that is that usually the money goes straight to a heartless corporation to buy a meaningless valueless product. will it make us happier? probably not.

and what if you don’t agree with the government’s stance on numerous issues? the cleanfeed? censoring artists? why not take their money and use it to buy yourself a lasting treasure, an investment and help out people in need all at the same time? and why not send a message while you’re at it?

Use your Rudd dollars to buy nude art!

feel warm and fuzzy inside knowing that you’ve helped out an artist (many of whom live below the poverty line), and if you live in australia you can feel happy knowing that you are using your money to help out an artist who will not be getting any help from their government because of their subject matter.

oh look! here’s some nude art!

and if you don’t like mine, Hazel Dooney has recently started a new blog showcasing her more affordable works.

24
Mar
09

Customary nuisance

By Jennie 4 Comments
Categories: Exhibitions and Rants
languish
languish by Jennie Rosenbaum

I thought once I shipped my works to the Italian exhibition all I would have to worry about was the exhibition itself and getting them back again. how foolish am I?

first I de-stretch and package the works. I sent them off Express Courier International which is Australia Post’s best international service. It’s the one I always use for overseas deliveries because it is super fast and super safe. I have never had any problems with them.

the very next day I get a call saying they can’t ship the works because the combined value required an exporters registration number. this involved a trip to customs in the city, a lot of paperwork and resulted in my becoming a licensed exporter – cool!

so that was the end of it – right?

it gets sent to Italy. where it sits. in customs. for 2 weeks. why? who knows? apparently Italian customs is somewhat capricious.

the upshot is that the gallery are being fantastic, they are working hard to get it resolved. Australia Post are being less fantastic. I think the time and language difference is making it Too Hard for them. the exhibition has been postponed until we can get the works out of customs. I feel completely useless. and rather pissed off.

12
Feb
09

tighter nudity restrictions for Australian Artists

By Jennie 2 Comments
Categories: News, Nudes and Rants
Tags: , , , , , , ,
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the Art Monthly Australia Cover by Polixeni Papapetrou

The most repressive aspect of the guidelines is that they require retrospective documentation of compliance for images of nude or partly nude children taken over the last 18 years. This documentation will need to be reviewed by the Classification Board before such images can be exhibited. In other words, works such as Henson’s, which until now been have exhibited nationally and internationally and have not broken any state or federal laws, will be required to undergo review by Australia’s censorship body.

Aside from their anti-democratic character, the protocols present a multitude of almost impossible bureaucratic hoops through which artists and galleries will have to jump.

For example, prior to any future exhibition containing work produced by Henson in the last 18 years and featuring children, the photographer would be forced to track down the people involved, most of whom would be adults, and procure written confirmation of their own or their guardians’ consent for work produced at the time. What happens if any of those portrayed are untraceable or have died? Does that mean that the artist’s work cannot be exhibited or distributed?

Another contentious issue is that only depictions of real children will come under scrutiny, but not those images derived from “fantasy” or imagined. How is a viewer, editor, curator or censor to determine whether a painting or image is of a “real” child or an image conjured up by the artist, or an amalgam of several sources?

Another requirement that impinges on artistic spontaneity, a crucial element in the creative process, is the requirement for parental consent before a child is featured. Should an artist photograph their own child naked and then decide at a later point that the photograph has artistic merit, its exhibition or distribution could be prevented on the grounds that the artist had not sought a police check or signed a declaration of adherence to the protocols prior to taking the photo.

[From Australian artists face new censorship measures]

you may recall I posted about these when they were proposed back in October. having now read more about the “guidelines” that are now in effect I find myself completely bewildered and stumped. how on earth will any of this be enforced? how will they know if a painting is from life or imagined (or from a 3d resource like I use?) this strikes me as a pretty useless bill. a way to really annoy legitimate photographers like Bill Henson and Polixeni Papapetrou who will have most of the details in their files. It’s something that will be a hindrance, slowing down artists and galleries as these hoops are jumped through, ultimately for nothing.

why for nothing? why won’t it protect children? because the people they are prosecuting are not the ones that need policing. they are spending money and time and effort chasing down artists and making them jump through hoops when they should be out finding the real perpetrators of child pornography.

does this affect me? no, most of my works are adult and from imagined or 3d sources (or both). it is tailor made to specifically attack artists like Henson. and witchhunting is always wrong. I care about this because it sets a bad precedent. the government should never involve itself in censoring art and artists.

11
Feb
09

Nudes clothed in protest of web censorship

By Jennie 1 Comment
Categories: News, Nudes and Rants
Tags: , , , , , ,

SHANGHAI (AFP) – Chinese Internet users angered by censorship in cyberspace have dressed up images of famous renaissance nudes in a protest against Beijing’s crackdown on “vulgar” online content.

Images posted as part of the protest include Michelangelo’s statue “David” shown in a Mao suit while black socks and a strategically placed necktie were added to the artist’s depiction of Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

The protest began last week after a user of the social networking site Douban.com complained that images of several paintings, including Titian’s nude “Venus of Urbino,” had been deleted from an online photo album.

According to blogs on the site, Douban’s administrators had told the user that posting pornography would endanger the site’s operations.

In response, protest’s organisers asked Internet users to clothe artwork to “save” it from the censors, who have shut down 1,635 websites and 200 blogs in a one-month campaign against content that “harms public morality.”

[From by : Yahoo! Tech ]

An interesting protest to combat the idiocy of internet filtering. China’s mandatory filtering has been extended to include traditional fine art including the David, the Sistine Chapel and other pieces that are only considered humorously obscene on the Simpsons. what saddens me, however, is not so much the regulations in China, a country renowned for heavy personal restrictions and censorship, but the fact that this may also become the case here in Australia. For a while now there has been talk of putting a mandatory filter on all australian internet to filter out anything on a secret government blacklist. the government will have the power to arbitrarily change whatever is filtered on the cleanfeed. this sounds like an insane plan from the pen of George Orwell but this “clean filter” has become less of a case of maybe and more a case of “when”. despite the protests, despite the fact that this will do very little to block actual criminal activity and illegal porn, despite the fact that it will slow our internet speeds substantially, the government is spending 128 million on a flawed plan. 128 mil that could go towards internet education, towards helping protect against fraud or helping support the online units that are sadly undermanned. 128 mil that could go towards helping the people who have lost everything in the fires.
If you are wondering why I am writing about this here, it is because I don’t want to clothe my nudes, even as a protest! we already know how the government feels about nude art, how long will it be before artists like me are filtered out?
you can find out more information and do your part to protest here: http://nocleanfeed.com/ or follow the #nocleanfeed conversation on twitter
There is good news in China though, I hope that when it’s our turn our protests will be as effective.

“Netizens in China are becoming more and more innovative in their ways of protesting against censorship authorities’ arbitrary use of power,” blogger Catherine Yeung wrote in a comment on the protest campaign.
And the protest has had an almost immediate effect.
By Thursday (local time), the Shanghai user whose renaissance album started the controversy said Douban had allowed the deleted paintings to be shown in their original form.

(when did this become a political blog?)

01
Jan
09

The last few weeks.

By Jennie Leave a Comment
Categories: Rants and Reflections

it’s been a difficult few weeks. stuff has been happening to disrupt our lives at the moment and I have not been coping as well as I would hope. we still don’t have a home to move to and we have to be out in two and a half weeks. rental occupancy is at an all time low and every open for inspection is swarming with prospective tenants. my husband’s hours have been cut back drastically and we are having a hard time making ends meet. despite all of this I have managed to host a large family christmas, recapture my christmas spirit and joy and to enjoy the holiday period. I have been able to catch up with good friends, family and to really enjoy the holiday (all the while telling myself that I couldn’t look for houses anyway with all the estate agents closed – so I may as well have fun!)

I still believe in christmas. not the religious aspects, but the sense of unity and joy that this season brings. I believe in miracles and in making a new start. I believe in renewing hope and in getting together with the people you love and focussing on only that. spreading joy and happiness as much as possible.

I am sure our problems will resolve themselves. they always do. I am such a control freak that I tend to work as hard as I can to bring about a resolution. I will make this happen.

Thankyou all for being patient with me. I am sorry this is such a downer post, I wanted to share with you the reasons why I can’t focus on blogging or even painting. I expect things will resolve soon. thankyou all :)

04
Nov
08

Children in Art Protocols

By Jennie 3 Comments
Categories: News and Rants
Tags: , , ,
beatrice.jpg
Beatrice

The document focuses on four central areas: making sure children are protected from when the artwork is created until when it is shown; how to relate the nature and content of the material to viewers; protecting children from being exploited; and creating guidelines while maintaining the council’s support of artists and artistic freedom.

Respondents included academics, community and government bodies, and children’s right activists. According to the document, many people expressed genuine concern for the rights of the artists: “Upholding the freedom of practice and expression in the arts was a key consideration raised by many stakeholders,” it says.

The respondents were generally divided between those in favor of the protocols and those who fear that their creation will lead to the censorship of artists.

[From Australia Council Releases Children-in-Art Protocols Document - ARTINFO.com]

I am uncertain on how I feel about this. I don’t object to there being regulations to protect children, definitely not on a general scale. I do however object to there being regulations surrounding art. art is about breaking boundaries and rules, to broadening people’s minds and to extending their worlds. art should be challenging and at times uncomfortable. it should be without rules by it’s very nature.

I also believe that parents should be responsible for their children, that it is up to them to ensure they are not exploited or mistreated. and yes, I know sometimes it can happen regardless, but I resent the government saying that parents have no rights over their children – what? and no, hovering anxiously over children isn’t the answer either. I’m sure there must be a happy medium in which children grow up at the proper time, dress their age and avoid miscreants and ne’er-do-wells. (and I realize that I have no say as someone who is not yet a parent, but as I intend to be one day and am an insane planner you better believe I have given these areas much thought.)

again I ask what is being done about the children who are really in need? Obviously not enough, and yet more time and effort is being funneled into these less important issues. yes children need protecting, but not necessarily from artists.

02
Sep
08

Prudish council rejects nude art

By Jennie 1 Comment
Categories: News, Nudes and Rants
Tags: , , , , , , ,
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Judge for yourself – the “highly explicit” nudes by Tuckey and Eames (photo courtesy of the ABC)

“I unwrapped my work and they looked at it and told me it was inappropriate and they would not hang it in the exhibition,’’ Ms Tuckey, a TAFE art teacher, said.

“They said that school children would be seeing the exhibition. I couldn’t believe anything as simple as a nude drawing of a female adult that is not full
frontal … would not be accepted. It was a rude shock.

“I think some of them are ignorant of what art is, this is art and this is an art exhibition. I’d say (to the council) grow up.’’

A nude portrait won an award at the same exhibition last year in which Mr Eames was allowed to enter a nude sculpture of the Greek god Poseidon “rising
from the cliffs with his penis exposed’’.

Mr Eames, of Tea Tree Gully, said he was “dumbfounded’’ to be excluded this year. “I said `you’ve got to be joking’ and the organiser said `if you’re both going
to continue to protest, I’ll have to ask you to leave the premises’.

“I argued that school children go through tours at galleries like the South Australian Art Gallery and see nudity all the time. The (organisers) said it’s coming
from the Mayor and their hands are tied … They need to get with the times, don’t be a bunch of prudes, this is the real world.’’

[From Is it too rude? TTG Council thinks it is - - News | Leader Messenger ]

Another example of a knee jerk reaction following the Henson and Nelson Debacles. The fact that a nude won last year just highlights the sheer hypocrisy at work in the Arts councils at the moment. the works are very nice, classical nudes. there is nothing sexual, indecent or provocative about them. There was a time when the US was considered to be more prudish, more censored and fearful, but this year Australia has really taken the cake. According to the Mayor, who had not actually seen the works in question, these pieces are “extremely graphic” nudes.

Mayor Miriam Smith denied she had ordered staff to reject nude entries.

She said it was a “staff decision’’ but one she supported. “Staff rightly so rejected the pieces based on their graphic nudity,’’ she said. “… it’s not about the pieces of art work, it’s about the environment they were to be displayed it’s not an art gallery it’s a community show where children can come into.’’

While Ms Smith said she was not “personally opposed to nude art … when people go (to the exhibition) they don’t expect to be confronted with extremely graphic nude pieces of art work’’.

[From Is it too rude? TTG Council thinks it is - - News | Leader Messenger ]

There is, however, a happy ending. Russell Starke of Greenhill Galleries was so appalled by this senseless censorship that he snapped up both works for his gallery. within days, the sculpture by artist Scott Eames sold for $1000. He has also received an offer for a solo exhibition at Greenhill galleries next year.

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