3 / Bill Henson controversy? Whatever.
Oh dear, was there an Earthquake last week? A Taifun and flood somewhere? Tens of thousands perished? You wouldn’t know from the Herald’s front page. We really know what’s important, don’t we.
Bill Henson’s work is not, trust me. I can’t believe our PM chides in with such strong an opinion; he thinks the pictures are revolting - fair enough, but since when is art politics?
Our director of art, Edmund Capon, enthuses, “Henson’s images are veritable symphonies of decadence, beauty, squalor, opulence …”, well he would, wouldn’t he; he put on that retrospective of Henson’s work a few years ago. But what does he know – I mean, he thinks those ridiculous $5m Cy Twombly scribbles hung so prominently in the AGNSW are art … as does, Henson, incidentally. (Yes, yes, I know: National Gallery, Guggenheim, Bibliotheque Nationale … they can’t be wrong; best join in.)
There is stuff to be learned here. Henson’s work is boring. His pictures are mediocre. His retrospective of 300odd images, all rather much the same black on black – he even got away with hanging two or three images from the same photo-session – was repetitive at least. Of course you can wax lyrical about the images … showing pictures of naked under-age children, “is the most effective vehicle for expressing ideas about humanity and vulnerability …” etc; whatever, Mr Henson. At the end of the day, when somebody is sitting at his computer, gawking at pictures of 13 year old naked boys or girls and masturbating, it’s turned into pornography.
As an artist Henson is a one-trick-pony. Our director of art critique, John McDonald, thinks Bill Henson is ‘Numero Uno’; oh dear again. If you want to see art, these days you better go to the MCA and check out Fiona Hall. There is art, stimulating, varied, mind-boggling, superbly crafted, endlessly inventive, utterly inspiring. Oh yes, Bill Henson’s works are all much bigger (if you need to blow up your picture hugely, there’s something wrong with it), some are sliced to pieces and neatly stuck together again (if you need to do that to your pictures there’s something VERY wrong with them).
It is interesting that the curator of his retrospective in 2005 says there were 65,000 visitors and no complaints. For the record, I hated the show. Displaying huge photographs of naked 13 year old girls, I thought, was creepy (please, consider victims of pedophilia.) So did many of my friends. I don’t give a hoot that his work is ever so celebrated. It is still either boring or creepy. I do believe that he doesn’t do this type of work to be controversial, he’s just an artist. All artists are single minded, ignorant, brilliant, sensitive etc. And - doh! - good art often is controversial. (O.k. I have to declare, I am green with envy at his success! That lucky bastard!)
But my envy-green this weekend has been replaced with rage-red. How dare the authorities censor his work! This is ridiculous and utterly infuriating; Australia will be a laughing stock the world over … I’ll stop now, David Marr can take over from here. (One last word to Bill Henson: Come out of hiding, carry your head high, continue the work you believe in; and if they burn you at the stake, bear it.)