A seven minute teaser from the Bill Henson Art Debate

In June 2008 the Museum of Contemporary Art held a two hour discussion regarding the art work of Bill Henson and the sexualisation of children. In selecting this expression of opinion by Clive Hamilton of the Australia Institute I am capturing only one point of view.

The debate (2 hours) is available for viewing in it's entirety (in four parts) at:-

http://www.themonthly.com.au/tm/node/1056

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Australia
• censorship
• art
• politics

[artistechick]

not only did the police and the censorship board see SENSE and uncensored 4 of the images but Bill Henson will continue to be a respected and valued artist in the art world.

Overall..get all your facts straight and think before you speak because it's people like you who have no knowledge are corrupting the world. I'm not saying it's /just/ you but it's people who are LIKE you.

[artistechick]

The day that Kevin Rudd called Bill Henson's work 'revolting' was the day that he was forever cut off from the art world. Furthermore, the way he did not take into anyone's other opinions only strengthens the surrounding negative opinion of him as a narrow minded incompetent inexperienced prime minister who sees only one view and everything else means nothing. To that i say NO.

Finally, I would like to say that Bill Henson's censorship was unncessary and futile because...

[shygurldance]

whats not healthy is that they are drinking and who knows if those kids were sober, and if they used protection if they got paid for it.... i guess it just one pair on teenagers so who cares right? :( :( :(

[ManFromMelbourne]

You lot are idiots, especially artistechick. You`d make a good lawyer for someone charged with possessing child porn artistechick. Just think, now when ever someone else gets caught and arrested with possession of child porn, they can quote from some of artistechick`s comments here and also say, "hey, Bill henson has this stuff in his possession so why can`t i?"

[stinky472]

What do you think about parents who post their children's nude baby pictures online for others to see? I'm sure there is at least one pervert out there jerking off to things like that. Still, I can understand where you are coming from. Children are not old enough to responsibly decide whether they want to be nude subjects. What bothers me, however, are the people who find Henson's photos to be pornographic. Nothing about these photos suggest any intention of arousing the viewer.

[teamredtard]

funny how people like Clive Hamilton or Melissa Tankard Reist like to present themselves as moderate and sensible and definitely not conservative reactionaries ..but Clive is a big fan of Arch Bishop Jenson who opposes gay and women priests and bans them from preaching in the Sydney dioceses and Melissa whose articles go back to the old conservative sterotypes of women as either passive victims or treacherous sluts has well documented links to anti abortion groups and the hard Catholic right

[artistechick]

It is BECAUSE of people like YOU who think that showing even just a little bit of the human body that there are self esteem issues and body image issues arising and now it is only becoming /worse/ in this day and age. Have at least SOME common sense and think before you speak. By the way, Bill Henson is a respected and talented moral artist and the art world will continue to support him.

[artistechick]

Furthermore, the narrow-minded people who have no knowledge of the art world will only view an artwork (any artwork for that matter) as being pornographic when it is not and will only say that everything is sexual and 'dirty'. /THAT/ woman Hetty Johnson even believes that nudity in all films, photography, paintngs and so forth should be BANNED. That is not protecting the children from sexual abuse. It is stifling the artistic community spirit and damaging the self-esteem of a person's own body.

[artistechick]

Finally, there are past models who posed in Hensons' nude photographs as a child and they talked openly and happily about being able to share their empathy with the artist himself and what he was trying to express. Consequently, there is EVIDENCE that no child was harmed physically or emotionally ever. The only reason the children who posed nude in Henson's photographs would ever be harmed is the way the public has been reacting in such distaste and revolt towards their human body.

[artistechick]

Secondly, Bill Henson had the written and parental consent of the child of the 13 yo girl in question as well as all the other adolescent models in question. Who are you to determine what's right for other people's chidren? Also, Henson did not go to stalk any of the primary schools. He had prior written consent from the principal of the school. And another fellow actor (i can't remember his name) said that movie directors follow the same process to recruit potential child actresses and actors.