Two more artists censored

Artists Cash Brown and Michael Keighery have both recently experienced censorship by the Sydney Olympic Park Authority (SOPA) which runs the Armory Gallery. Two months ago, both artists were commissioned to provide work for an exhibition of the work of 20 former artists-in-residence at the Armory. However, when it came to the point of final approval, SOPA had second thoughts. Keighery opted to replace his entry with another work while Cash Brown reluctantly agreed to her work being displayed behind a curtain with a viewer advisory warning. For Brown the final indignity was finding that the image of her work had been eliminated from the exhibition catalogue. Brown says that this work is a homage to an 1877 painting by Gustave Courbet, “L'Origine Du Monde.” This highly regarded master work is on public display at the Musee D'Orsay in Paris which is visited by 2.5 million people a year. Brown says that if she had known about SOPA’s objection in advance, she would have made a different decision. NAVA maintains that organizations which are responsible for showing or distributing artists’ work should have transparent policies and appropriate protocols for dealing with contentious work. Cases like this will be dealt with in NAVA’s Art Censorship Guide to be released later in 2009.

To read the article in the Sydney Morning Herald click here