Gatherr

Imogen Cunningham

Peter Gasser

A scene from the Life Of Brian in which a group of religious bigots stone someone to death. It is ironic that this film which parody’s the absudity of religious and political repression has been itself banned in some countries, supposedly for blasphemy.

Censorship in the Islamic world is far reaching. This issue of the National Geographic sold in Iran received heavy censorship because of an article on love. The front cover depicted a couple embracing. Before global television and Internet, censorship went unnoticed outside these countries but now artistic expression in the West that angers Islamic fundamentalists leads to violence, death threats and protests world wide.

It is a complex issue. The publishing of political cartoons in Denmark that lead to widespread protests is widely supported as legitimate artistic expression worthy of being defended. But what of the anti-Islamic film made by a right wing polititian in The Netherlands? Is this any different to the sort of anti-semitic productions that deny the holocaust? Should we support the right to free speech even where it causes offence?

I personally found the call by the Indonesian President this week to ban the making of films critical of the Koran to be very offensive. As an artist I find any censorship offensive but it appears vast numbers of people all over the world prefer censorship to artistic freedom.

In Victorian Britain it was not permitted to depict images of members of the government and in 1873 the government of William Gladstone banned the play The Happy Land because the characters in the play included the Prime Minister and 2 of his ministers. The author had attempted to avoid censorship by labeling the characters “Mr G., Mr L., and Mr A.” The Prince Of Wales attended the opening night and was shocked by the attack on the government which his mother - Queen Victoria - was head of. The play was quickly banned but public outrage lead to it being unbanned, and its notoriety was responsible for a long run of 222 performances.

Thomas Bowdler was so offended by the language and concepts in Shakespere that he published an expurgated version with all the parts he considered immoral removed. This is his copy of Othello showing how he crossed out entire sections and certain lines he particularly objected to are crossed out so heavily his pen almost goes through the paper. Bowdler was so adamant that Shakespeare’s original words should never be seen by women and children that he was ridiculed and his name became a word - bowdlerize - that became associated with absurd moral censorship.

Although we associate book burning with repressive dictatorships and theocracy’s in fact censorship has often been rife in western doemocrcy’s too. The New York Society For Suppression Of Vice had an image of book burning in its emblem. Even today Europeans and Australians are often amused by the obvious prudery of American television with scenes and language that would be considered normal in Europe bleeped and pixelated on Amercan TV.

In the 1930’s Austrian cultural life enjoyed the work and passion of many Jewish artists. It was the same at the Vienna State Opera, pictured here. A famed conductor, a lowly laundress, singers, dancers, musicians. Jews, part Jews, or married to Jews - they were all a valued part of Vienna’s opera family - until the Nazis came in 1938. Thereafter no Jew was permitted to be involved in any way with any kind of public cultural life.