Bill Henson is in the news again, this time for his controversial thoughts on the risks associated with Arts, Sports and the Church. In a recent interview with the Australian, Henson stated that when searching for high risk areas to children that “The last place you would start with would be the arts.” and that…
Part one and part two have already been published. This is the third and final part of my 10 minute speech for Sydney University’s Tuesday Talks program. Frequent readers may recognize some passages here, I couldn’t improve on them! When I initially wrote about the Bill Henson scandal a number of people told me that…
Part one is here.. These days the nude appears to have become more controversial as the line between nudity and sexuality has been blurred. The prevalence of porn and sexualized images In the media have led to an automatic association between nudity and sex. A belief that nudity is dirty, wrong, and disgraceful. All of…
One of the exonerated Nude Teen Pictures from 2008 by Bill Henson. Picture by the Daily Telegraph Bravehearts executive director Hetty Johnston has written to the Baillieu Government asking it to crack down on images such as those created by controversial artist Bill Henson. But artists say they should not be censored and current guidelines…
I think it’s pretty interesting to see that nude celebrities are still all the rage, and that apparently my coverage of Bill Henson has really made a difference in the world of blogging – or something. and yes folks – I do actually rate on my blog- see?
My question to Bill Henson – View the Entire lecture here
The speech last night was excellent. Listening to Bill Henson discuss various cultural references, I looked around at a variety of young, blank, faces and I felt how true some of his statements were. we do need to expose our children to art, to history, to culture. art is the expression of history and the cumulation of our civilization. I was struck by Henson’s self effacing nature. watching him you would never know that someone so apparently shy was embroiled in such a shocking controversy that rocked the art world two years ago. It was interesting how little he cited his own work, preferring to discuss literature, composers and classic painters.
Our zeal to protect innocence should not come at the cost of violating artistic experience. If we believe that art is a high form of education, that its basis is moral and its goal truth, then we should resist the impulse that would deny the artist the right to deal with what may sometimes be ambiguous, complex and disturbing.
What people overseas may not know is that the party in charge is considered to be the left wing party. it is becoming more and more apparent that both parties here are republican. in addition to the clean feed mandating what we may or may not view online is a new legislation currently in the works to strike artistic merit as a defence for works containing nude children .
Bill Henson and Richard Prince Comparison Comparisons are already being made and lines are already being drawn between the Brooke Shields photograph at the Tate and the Bill Henson debacle last year. conservatives and media alike will be debating the differences are between the different cases and trying to make them both fit the same…
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