Why Are They Getting So Mad At That Dude From The Muppets? We Thought Kids Loved Him?

Let us touch briefly on the current brouhaha (always a great Monday morning when I get to use that word) surrounding the exhibition of photographer Bill Henson. His photographs featured images “of early pubescent girls, in particular a 13-year-old whose picture, naked from the waist up, adorned the opening night invitation” and the subsequent outrage from the moral majority over his work led to police raiding a Sydney gallery and seizing the particularly offensive images.

As Larissa Dubecki in The Age notes -

The small-minded subjectivity surrounding this whole area was unwittingly summed up by the police spokesman who, after saving society from witnessing scenes of depravity at the Henson exhibition, told the assembled media that pictures had been seized as “suspected” child pornography. Hopefully, they’ll be able to figure out if it is or isn’t in the near future.

Talented rock photographer and all round wonderful man Daniel Boud has written a little bit about the controversy on his blog, saying -

I’m not sure what to think. It’s quite clear Bill Henson is a renowned art photographer, not some shameless pornographer. I believe neither he nor the gallery intend to exploit children or that the images are indecent. Yet it’s an obviously provocative thing to do. The images are creepy. And anything that exploits or sexualises children is repellent.

Regardless, the work has succeeded in a way much of the best art does. It’s provoked an emotional reaction, got people talking and asked more questions than it answers.

Indeed. It’s interesting that in a society quite happy to make money from the sexualisation of children, where the tween fashion world is a gazillion dollar industry and where television networks in the US offer up for public consumption gorgeous young child stars (slathered in enough make up and eye liner and blush, they’d make a whore from the Old West envious), we’re so quick to condemn similar images in art. Perhaps it’s because there’s no real product being sold in this situation other than the actual image itself. We can’t distract ourselves with the fact they’re wearing a skimpy top (available for $12.95) or it’s the poster for a kids movie (see it in 3-D!). We can’t pretend we’re doing anything else as a society but consuming our young for our own gratification, and that realisation is so frightening and guilt-inducing, we’d rather rustle together a quick lynch mob than acknowledge the part we’re playing in this sad situation.

Christ. What do I know? I haven’t had a coffee yet. I feel like I’m bluffing my way through my Year Twelve art theory exams again, talking complete rubbish about things I don’t really understand.

The ABC kindly informed me of the following, curious television watchers.

This coming Tuesday at 10pm ABC1 will be showing “The Art of Bill Henson” a half hour ABC documentary by Tony Wyzenbeek originally screened in 2004. It was the first time Bill Henson allowed TV cameras into his life, offering rare access to one of Australia’s most significant artists. This will be repeated on ABC2 next Sunday June 1 at 7pm.

Further, next Sunday June 1 on ABC1 at 5pm, Sunday Arts will feature an ABC half hour special which also highlights the work of Bill Henson; it’s a documentary by Louise Turley which charts the collaboration that created the show “Luminous” in 2005, a live performance incorporating the photography of Henson, the music of Richard Tognetti, vocals by Paul Capsis and soundscape by Paul Healy. This will be screened again, later the same night, at 7.30pm on ABC2.

So there you have it.

Let’s go to the Big Brother website and punch ourselves now, okay?