Ill-advised Oz PM weighs into Art debate - International Social/Political

The exhibition featured carefully composed frames of nude teenagers, which have since been removed from public viewing pending a police investigation into whether or not the pictures constitute child porn.

I have not directly viewed the pictures in question but it is clear from images available on news sites that Henson’s pictures are far removed from signature, flat-lighted, ‘butcher shop’ porn images.

Henson’s lighting is tasteful and discreet, his images are clearly NOT pornographic yet conservative sections of the community are outraged -- the PM, sensing an opportunity, joined the fray, no doubt hoping to exploit the situation for every political point it may have to offer.

We note that comments (rants) made by the PM have just now been removed from the Public Broadcaster’s News Website; they were very compromising of the PM and reeked of hypocrisy and a misdirected attempt at media exploitation. Nevertheless, ample material remains on other sites that highlight the most 'obscene' aspect of this whole affair, but first a gentle reminder of the role of art in western society.

Western Art among other things is designed to prick the conscience of society when it is perceived to be entering very dangerous ‘territory.’ Henson hinted at this during an interview; he referred to the now famous image of a young nude Vietnamese girl escaping an American napalm attack during the illegal Vietnam war -- which resulted in three million innocent deaths! Are we beginning to ‘get the picture?’

Henson’s carefully composed images have no context in the frame, therefore the viewer is forced to accept the images in the current social context which includes illegal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, WHICH HAVE RESULTED IN THE MURDER OF HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN and other innocent human beings – are we beginning to understand the concept of OBSCENITY now?

In this context Henson has turned the tables on the flagrant hypocrisy and inverted moral ‘values’ of our society, which accepts without protestations the most heinous images of dead nude children in a WAR context but is outraged by (cleverly crafted tasteful) images of nude teenagers in a peaceful environment/context!

It should be noted that our media darling PM, Kevin Rudd, is a self-confessed ‘Christian’ (hypocrite) and conservative. Neither characteristic qualify him to ‘cast a stone’ at Henson.

Henson’s extremely successful exhibition has fulfilled one traditional artistic function -- to remind us of our values and in this case our BLINDNESS and brazen HYPOCRISY.

Unfortunately for the PM it also highlights him as a parochial (Pauline Hanson) Queenslander, failed Christian, and philistine.

Henson has dramatically and expertly reminded us of the current horrific world REALITY and our inverted values and hypocrisy and for that we should be EXTREMELY grateful.

Regardless of the grunts of philistines and murdering brutes, from all your fellow artists at Cleaves, we extend our congratulations on a job well done, Bill!

The exhibition proved to be a remarkable success in more ways than could be anticipated, even a Prime Minister was compromised and exposed for the brazen lying hypocrite and political opportunist that he is.

OBSCENITY is a dirty word Mr Rudd, take a good look in the mirror and reconsider your slavish, cowardly, policies with the mass murdering Americans! Bill Henson has ‘exposed’ YOU!

See link for some of Rudd’s comments; his plea to allow “kids to be kids” should be read in the context of his servility to America and the many thousands of INNOCENT CHILDREN killed in illegal wars that HE SUPPORTS!

New South Wales Police say they will probably lay charges over Bill Henson's controversial art exhibition in Sydney.

Officers are at the Roslyn Oxley9 gallery in Paddington preparing to take away 20 of the 41 photos in the exhibition.

The Commander at Rosebay, Alan Sicard, says the shots all depict one girl under the age of 16 in a sexual context.

He has confirmed they are likely to press charges.

"On the offence of publishing an indecent article under the Crimes Act," he said.

Commander Sicard says the girl is not from New South Wales.

He has asked the authorities where she lives to help in the investigation.

He would not confirm reports the girl is from Victoria.

Commander Sicard says if charges are laid against the gallery, it would be through New South Wales laws, while the photos which were republished on the internet are a matter for the Federal Police.

Last night the exhibition's opening was cancelled because of numerous complaints made to police.

Meanwhile, the gallery and Henson said in a statement that the show will be reopened in coming days without the controversial photos.

© 2008 ABC

"Kids deserve to have the innocence of their childhood protected. I have a very deep [hypocritical] view of this. For God's sake, let's just allow kids to be kids.

Who would have thought a publicity stunt would net the Prime Minister, serves him right? Fools and philistines rush in Kevin, you LOATHSOME HYPOCRITE!

For another picture of a child see:
http://cleaves.zapto.org/news/story-569.html

BAIJI, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi police said on Thursday a U.S. helicopter airstrike killed eight civilians, including two children, but U.S. forces said the six adults killed were militants suspected of links to a bombing network.

News of Wednesday's incident north of Baghdad broke on a day when the top U.S. commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, said he expected to make further troop cuts by September.

The U.S. Senate approved a further $165 billion to wage war in Iraq and Afghanistan for another year after rejecting proposed timetables for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.

The speed of drawing down the 155,000 U.S. troops in Iraq is a central issue in the November U.S. presidential election.

An Iraqi television station accused U.S. troops of shooting dead one of its cameramen as he walked to his Baghdad home. The U.S. military denied it had killed any civilians in the area.

The body of a second journalist, a reporter for al-Sharq newspaper, was found dumped in a field with nine other corpses in Diyala province, police and colleagues said.

Colonel Mudhher al-Qaisi, police chief in the town of Baiji, north of the capital, said a U.S. helicopter fired at a group of shepherds in a vehicle in a farming area on Wednesday night.

"This is a criminal act. It will make the relations between Iraqi citizens and the U.S. forces tense. This will negatively affect security improvements," Qaisi told Reuters.

The U.S. military said the incident happened when American soldiers, hunting members of a bombing network, tried to detain the occupants of a vehicle.

HOSTILE INTENT

"Coalition forces engaged the target vehicle's occupants, killing five terrorists, after the terrorists exhibited hostile intent and failed to comply with instructions to surrender. Two children in the vehicle were also killed," it said.

U.S. forces killed another militant nearby after he refused to surrender, a statement said. It did not say if a helicopter was involved.

Reuters pictures showed relatives of the dead standing beside corpses covered by white sheets outside a mosque in Baiji, an oil refining town 180 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad.

"There were two boys, one was eight and the other was 11," said police Major Ahmed Hussein.

United Nations officials have expressed concern at the number of civilians killed in airstrikes in Iraq.

The U.S. military has been trying to soothe tensions with Baghdad over a U.S. soldier using a copy of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, for target practice.

A protest over the incident turned violent in Afghanistan on Thursday, leading to the death of a Lithuanian soldier and at least two Afghan civilians.

Police said five kidnapped Iraqi soldiers were found shot dead near the northern city of Mosul, where Iraqi security forces have been waging a campaign against al Qaeda.

A roadside bomb exploded as security forces went to investigate the bodies, wounding seven soldiers and two policemen, including a police lieutenant-colonel, police said.

In Washington, Petraeus told a U.S. Senate committee he expected to make further troop cuts after a 45-day freeze in withdrawals that begins in July.

U.S. troop strength in Iraq is due to fall to around 140,000 by July. Democratic presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have pledged to begin bringing U.S. troops home right away. Republican John McCain calls such promises reckless.

Petraeus also said that Iraqi provincial elections, seen as a step forward in Iraq's political evolution, were now likely to take place in November instead of October.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, striving to impose his government's authority on Shi'ite militias and Sunni militants, travelled to the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf for talks with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most senior Shi'ite cleric.

Maliki appeared to win an endorsement from Sistani for his drive to bring the country under central control.

Maliki launched an offensive against Shi'ite militias in the southern city of Basra in March and then a push against al Qaeda in Mosul. This week his troops took control of Sadr City, the Baghdad stronghold of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

British defense Secretary Des Browne visited Basra on Thursday and declared it to be a "transformed city."

"All around us were the signs of a city returning to normality," Browne said after going for a walk in Basra and stopping at a cafe for a cup of tea with the commander of Iraqi forces in the city.

Britain handed over responsibility for security in Basra to Iraqi forces last December but still has about 4,000 soldiers based outside the city at Basra airport.

Additional reporting by Khaled Farhan in Najaf and Aseel Kami, Tim Cocks and Ross Colvin in Baghdad; Writing by Michael Georgy and Adrian Croft; Editing by Giles Elgood

© Thomson Reuters 2008

The senior arts figure Michael Gow has accused the Prime Minister of hypocrisy over his response to Bill Henson's photographs of naked adolescents and said artists invited to the 2020 Summit were drafting a letter demanding an explanation.

Mr Gow, a celebrated playwright and the artistic director of the Queensland Theatre Company, said Kevin Rudd's description of Henson's work as revolting and devoid of artistic merit was unacceptable.

Only two months ago, he was telling arts delegates to the 2020 Summit that he supported debate and contention.

"The Prime Minister who invited us to Canberra has questioned the abilities and credentials of a major Australian artist," he wrote in a letter to The Herald.

"I regret attending the 2020 Summit and invite others who attended to join me in protesting the treatment of Bill Henson over the last few days."

Mr Gow said Mr Rudd's comments were hypocritical. "A lot of people are disappointed now."

Delegates from the Creative Australia forum have been emailing each other, condemning Mr Rudd's response and drafting a letter asking him to outline what he sees as the difference between art and pornography, he said.

Police seized the photographs from the Roslyn Oxley9 gallery on Friday and plan to lay charges under state and federal laws over the exhibition, which has sparked a passionate national debate about censorship and the sexualisation of children.

The Minister for Families, Jenny Macklin, said yesterday that there was a broader problem of the sexualisation of children at stake. "I don't agree with the photographs, but I also don't agree with the way in which children are being bombarded in many other places, whether it's billboards, whether it's on children's television," she told the Nine Network.

"Children ... are just getting bombarded with sexualised images all the time, and it's that sexualisation of children that I think is wrong."

Henson and the gallery owner Roslyn Oxley have continued to shun the media, as reports emerge that they have been the objects of violent threats. The threats have not been formally reported to police.

Since news of the exhibition broke on Thursday, the gallery's answering machine has been inundated with angry calls, some threatening to burn down the building, said Ms Oxley's husband, Tony Oxley.

The threats have been condemned by Hetty Johnston, the child welfare advocate who made the complaints to police over the exhibition.

Ms Johnston co-wrote a letter of complaint over Henson's photographs after seeing them on the gallery website, which she faxed to the gallery on Thursday afternoon.

She also faxed a copy to the NSW Police Commissioner, Andrew Scipione, and the Arts Minister, Frank Sartor.

But the Herald now understands it was not her complaint that sparked the investigation.

A spokesman for the Police Commissioner confirmed that he received letters of complaints from listeners to the radio station 2GB about the exhibition, which prompted him to notify the Sex Crimes Unit about 2pm on Thursday.

He said said local police commands had already received several complaints from the general public about the exhibition.

The spokesman said he did not receive Ms Johnston's letter on Thursday at all, while a spokesman for Mr Sartor said the office received it late in the day, after the police had visited the gallery.

Ms Johnston said she was pleased by the rapid police response to the public's complaints and hoped the court would uphold any charges that were laid.

"If this is not upheld by the court it will give a green light to pedophiles everywhere," she said yesterday.

© 2008 Fairfax Digital

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