Bill Henson image from the Art Gallery of South Australia.
Those of us who remember Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s Queensland will also recall the intimate links between civil liberties, democracy and censorship. Stephen Keim, the prominent Brisbane QC who distinguished himself with his courage in conducting Dr Haneef’s case in the Federal Court last year, certainly does remember. One of the ironies of Kevin Rudd’s intervention in the Bill Henson controversy is that recent Queensland Labor governments have been doing their utmost to dispel our state’s older image in large part through promoting creativity and culture – and perhaps because of the legacy of the Joh era, concerns about liberty and the link between freedom of speech and democracy are still very present in the Brisbane of 2008. So I was very interested to read Keim’s contribution to today’s Crikey, which I’m reproducing (with permission) over the fold.
Stephen Keim writes:
Kevin Rudd comes from Queensland. So do I. Unlike Kevin, I didn’t become a diplomat or learn Mandarin. In fact, I have always lived in Queensland and never left the shores of this great land of ours, girt by sea.
Maybe, that is why I still feel the shame of Queensland, the laughing stock, the State where police and politicians interfered in artistic matters with heavy hands and jack booted feet.
The late Alex Buzo’s early play, Norm and Ahmed, was, perhaps, before its time or, maybe, for our time. It dealt with issues of race relations. The ethnicity and background of the two protagonists are reflected in the title of the play: Norm is a broadly Caucasian “normal” Australian and Ahmed is a young Pakistani student. The play had a dramatic climax involving Norm striking Ahmed and using the phrase “Fu~cking Boongs”.
In 1968, at a time when the relationship between politicians and the police force in Queensland exhibited little awareness of the concept of separation of powers, the play’s performance at the Twelfth Night theatre in Brisbane was interrupted by a number of police officers walking on stage to arrest Norman Staines, the actor playing Norm, for using obscene language.
The forces of free speech did leap into action. In a celebrated court case, the police force was unsuccessful in seeking an injunction to prevent further performances of the play. But the damage was done. The world was aware that Queensland was a place where the forces of the State would suppress culture in the name of prosecuting obscenity.
Another celebrated instance occurred in the following year when the left-wing Red and Black Book Shop was raided by police and prints of Aubrey Beardsley’s nude sketch, Lysistrata, were seized.
Again, the world was told in the clearest terms: “Queensland is a cultural desert”.
I have always resented those actions by police in Queensland acting with more than a wink and a nod from its politicians. I have hated the way those actions reflected over subsequent decades upon everyone who lived in or hailed from Queensland.
It is clear from Kevin Rudd’s “absolutely revolting” remarks in the face of the Henson photographs that those dark days of conservative rule in Queensland do not weigh so heavily upon him.
It is clear from Greg Barns’ articles in these pages that there is a strong circumstantial case that the police who seized the paintings had little idea of the law they were purporting to enforce. There is an equally strong circumstantial case that, having had the law and their mistake pointed out to them, rather than admit their error, they will offload their “problem” to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
But it is Kevin Rudd whose actions puzzle me.
Surely, he is not the same narrow-minded populist as was his predecessor in office. I can only put it down to “capture”. Just as attorneys-general get captured by the security agencies; just as energy ministers get captured by the fossil fuel and metals industries, I think most politicians get captured by their media minders.
As a result, their neurones become soaked in ideas of “how this will play out in the 24 hours news cycle”. Ideas of “how this will make Australia look in the eyes of the world” are pushed to one side. Equally, the thought that goes with organising 2020 Conferences, “how will I look in 20 years’ time” also loses out.
I leave the artistic value of the Henson photographs to others to judge. I am no more qualified than Kevin Rudd to make such judgements. There are, however, others who are so qualified and they have been prepared to speak up.
My concern is that, once again, I and many like me are being cast, on a world stage, among the Philistines.
Can I say to politicians, everywhere, practise these words: “As for the art, I will leave that to others to judge. As for the legality, that is a matter for the police and the courts”.
It’s not that difficult.
To do otherwise may just turn out to be “absolutely revolting”.
Nicely skewered.
This Henson takes photographs of 13yo girls with their genatalia blowin’ in the wind.
Hardly anybody outside his own circle had heard of him prior to this recent revelation.
Any publicity = good publicity (especially so for esoteric artists)
But his photos ARE of 13yo girls in the nuddy.
The rest of the country gets into strife for photographing their own kids participating in school sport.
.. And this feller was taking photos of 13yo girls in the raw!
IIRC, Rudd’s a country boy from Nambour (?), and a very strong Christian. He may be wrong, but he’s probably sincere in his views. Sure, sincerity doesn’t redeem idiocy, but it doesn’t mean that the holder of allegedly idiotic views is unreasonable (‘look, you’ll make your state/country/whatever into a cultural desert’). I think that’s very dangerous territory in which to stray, particularly in the case of a new PM who, for all his flaws, looks likely to grow into the role with some skill.
We’ve been having a long and meandering discussion about the concept of the ‘reasonable man’ on our Henson thread (as in, how would a reasonable person view x images), and it’s worth remembering that the legal concept in question does depend on a degree of values commonality. I’m starting to think that the actions of ‘Hetty J’ (so named by another lawyer on our Henson thread) may have actually shifted the range of ‘reasonable’ views on this issue.
In which case, the only thing likely to be hung is the jury.
Steve at the pub, Henson has been doi,g tihs for years. His photos sell for a lot of money. He’s not some obscure wannabe who needs the publicity.
And I agree. I think Rudd is a social conservative who gave his honest opinion. The problem is that PMs don’t get to have personal opinions in public.
Last time I checked, no lawyers had been gunned down in the streets of Qld acting for a defendent, so calling Keim courageous is nonsense.
Hey M – why not illustrate the point with the pictures showing the girls labia, instead of these indisputably gorgeous cloudscapes?
sublimecowgirl, do you mean you cannot see those labia in the clouds?
I thought you were an artist.
the streetlamps could be phallic at a stretch….
This all brings back memories of this guy during the seventies. Even back then, when peodophilia was a jokey by-product of the english class system and other Uncle Ernie comic foils, it was clear that it was all a bit pervy no matter what artistic pretensions it was couched in (Interesting to see the debate on Amazon BTW). Our protagonists have shifted from Humbert Humbert to Lester Burnham during the same period, and I think we’re better for it.
No way I’d trust my nieces to David Hamilton, and Henson is probably that same type. And if you don’t, then what must you consider his work?
That’s some stretch, SC. Ouch!
Labia in the clouds indeed.
We strotocumulusphiles are most pleased with Mr Henson’s work, and the succour it gives to our ghastly perversions. Also, we hate live music.
*sigh*
As my dear old Ma used to say, if you don’t have anything correctly spelled to say, don’t say anything at all.
The fact that Rudd was a Queenswlander who presumably lived through the repression/oppression of the Bjelke Petersen years (I was only up there for a couple of months and it scared the sh*t out of me)has made me wonder over the past few days why he didn’t give Stepanovic a lecture on the separation of rhe executive and the judiciary rather than falling for Carl’s trap. I don’t blame Rudd’s media minders. Stepanovic, IMHO, is a Liberal Party front man, and every Labor or Green or Democrat politician has to be very wary when facing his inquisition.
Rudd wasn’t.
FDB – in that case then i couldn’t comment at all.
I spurn your discrimination against dyslexics!
People with sick minds will see genitalia in everything
http://www.flickr.com/photos/suburbangothic/374966649/in/set-72157594507728851/Pottery even.
“As my dear old Ma used to say, if you don’t have anything correctly spelled to say, don’t say anything at all.”
FDP do not fear.
“Scrotum”, as a word, should have been given the sac years ago.
“I leave the artistic value of the Henson photographs to others to judge. I am no more qualified than Kevin Rudd to make such judgements.”
So why imply he has no right to give his opinion, or, without evidence, that it was not an honest one?
I reckon there’s been too much chat about the photos. As I understand the police have investigated and the matter may end up in court. Good. I can’t see any problem with anybody taking nude photos of pre-teens having to explain themselves in court. And if the court decides it’s happy about it then so am I.
The photos showed labia of 13yo girls?
If that is the case, anybody who cannot understand the furore (or why police were involved) has severe cognitive problems.
yes. You can track down the age’s story may 27th “Henson knock-on as more walls stripped” to see one of these images in the background.
sublimecowgirl, that photograph in the background was NOT one of the pictures disputed, as the article says it belongs to a regional gallery in Albury, having been sold to the gallery by the woman in the picture, who clearly didn’t have a problem with the picture being displayed. http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/henson-knockon-as-more-walls-stripped/2008/05/26/1211653938508.html
Also, nothing in the article says how old that model was, only that she was a teenager.
Let’s get the facts straight.
I know I’m old, half-blind and have absolutely no sex drive, but I didn’t see any labia in the Henson photos I looked at. Maybe its all in the eye of the beholder.
In any case this debate has gone far beyond the spurious debate about child pornography concocted by publicity hungry self-appointed public figures desperate to get themselves on TV who would see filth in a Boticelli painting if they knew what a Boticelli was.A Prime Minister and a Premier have publicly muddied the waters over what could be an impending criminal trial where a decision has to be made by a jury. Is it possible their comments and the comments of various moral guardians, the motives of the latter being highly questionable tro say the least, have endangereed the poossibility of Henson getting a fair trial, or have most potential still unknown jurors already been convinced if they find Henson innocent that they’re supporting pedophila?
Among other things, that’s the danger of what Rudd and Iemma did.
Laura – what facts did i not get straight?
I just suggested, tongue in cheek that mark should pick the controversial pics to illustrate the post, rather than the landscapes.
An assertion has been thrown around at different places that none of hensons pics show underage girls ‘below the waist’, or only if they are shadowed.
I just think that is misleading in terms of this debate.
As for the age of the girl in ‘the age’ picture – she may not have been chronologically thirteen, but unless she is developmentally delayed she appears around his age, or more likely 12.
And no, i do not consider that picture pornographic.
SATP’s question at 19 and your answer at 20
sc, we don’t post photos which are “not safe for work” for reasons which have nothing whatever to do with Henson’s images. It’s about ensuring that sys-admins don’t block access to LP, not about any judgements we ourselves make.
Looking at Rudd’s bio he would have been 11 years old in the year Alex Buzo’s play got the treatment. 1968 was the year the Rudd’s father died. He finished Senior at Nambour SHS in 1974 and then shot through from Qld until he came back to work with Goss in 1988.
So he didn’t suffer the Bjelke Petersen years of cultural oppression as an adult.
Queensland primary education was very bare boards, talk and chalk, focussed on the three R’s and with very large classes until the 1960s and into the early 70s. In the late 60’s the then Research and Curriculum Branch with the Social Studies syllabus committee introduced the so-called ’social studies mini-libraries’ into classrooms to extend from the single text approach. Central school libraries were often of the broom cupboard under the stairs variety.
They also introduced the Man: a Course of Study (MACOS) and boy did that cause a storm. It was clear to certain moral campaigners that kids were being taught incest, for example, because obviously there would be incest if Netsilik families slept in one igloo. STOP (Society to Outlaw Pornography) and CARE (Campaign Against Regressive Education) fought and raged against the forces of darkness. The redoubtable Rona Joyner it is said asked only one commitment from members apart from money – that they agreed in advance with whatever she might say.
Around the turn of the decade a dynamic Director of Primary Education was appointed who was determined to drag the system out of the 19th century. At the same time Supervisors in Art, Music and School Libraries were appointed as well as a San Hose trained (that’s probably the right word) media man to promote all the new and some old audio-visual technologies.
(Ironically, if you google Rona Joyner you’ll find stuff, whereas the said director, a bloke called Bill Hamilton, you won’t.)
With the inputs of the Whitlam years schooling in Queensland pretty much caught up with the rest of the country.
By the 1980s Queensland had very good art and music education throughout the schooling system.
Rudd’s education was defective, he was out of here before things improved, and I’m afraid the early deficiencies in his education were never remediated later.
Laura – not sure what you mean. THe pic in that article was taken down by the Albury City COuncil in the wake of the earlier exhibition closure as they “wanted to be cautious”.
Not sure what you are disputing. THat the self censoring by the council of Hensons pubescent nudes is not part of this whole issue ?
Or people who’ve just read Freud for the first time.
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Bolt should be trying to get Surrealism banned. There are genitals in everything those people do.
He should be trying to get Rorschach blots banned not to mention pink fir apple potatoes http://www.c-wright.co.uk/images/cwf33.JPG
Brian, you evoke memories. As a teacher of MACOS (there weren’t many of us) I well remember the Rona induced stink at the time. We were instructed to package it all up and return same to the Department. Most did.
I still have a complete set.
I well remember engaging Rona along with Angel Rendle-Short (Sp?) in many public meetings including one that was televised on the ABC on the 7:30 Report or whatever it was called at the time.
I’m not sure that I have the same fond memories of Bill as you have. Bill lectured me at Teachers’ College and later I heard he was somewhat of a religious bigot. Seems he had a thing about Catholics, or so the gossip went.
He also intoduced Maths in Modules, as I recall, that became known as Maths in Mothballs. A complete and expensive failure. Nuffield?
As to your main point, yes Queensland Education was retarded for years. Labor in the fifties thought ‘primary’ was sufficient and subsequent governments tended to agree.
It was through Whitlam’s Disadvantaged Schools Program that MACOS arrived. Whitlam had a profound, positive effect on QLD education through the DSP.
Memories, memories …
wpd, Bill Hamilton treated me well, for which I am thankful. All I’m saying is that he had a go. Most of the directors were a mixed bag.
I was struggling to remember the other one, but yes it’s Angel Rendle-Short.
As time went by we carried the burden of advice on controversial material. That is the Ministerials usually came to us to draft a reply.
I remember when we got a youngish staff member who was a terrific speed reader to read James Baldwin’s Another Country. He came back two hours later saying he found it a lacerating experience which every growing boy should have. So we gave it to one of the mature women to have a go.
The problem really was that there was some sympathy for the Rona’s and the Angel’s amongst the directors, not to mention ministers like Lyn Powell. I recall a certain DG who came out of technical education telling me that there should be no words in novels in our schools that he wouldn’t use around the breakfast table. That was when families had breakfast around a table, obviously. So if Ivan Denisovich let one rip when he saw the temperature was just above -20C and had to go out and work in the snow, it didn’t matter, if the DG didn’t use it in front of the missus and kids it was out.
We got around this by suggesting that it was a matter of community values and developing guidelines for procedures the schools could use.
But I’m sure many schools didn’t know about the guidelines, or if they did, pretended they didn’t, and it didn’t save the principal from taking the easy way out and just banning the thing anyway if he (almost always he) wanted to.