Gallery under angry siege 【Sydney Morning Herald 2008/05/25】
Gallery under angry siege – Arts – Entertainment – smh.com.au
Gallery under angry siege
Frank Walker and Heath Gilmore
May 25, 2008
Page 1 of 2 | Single page
THE owner of the Sydney art gallery at the centre of a storm over photographs of naked teenagers was holed up inside it yesterday after receiving violent threats.
Messages left on the answering machine at the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in the inner-city suburb of Paddington threatened to “burn the building down”.
The owner, Roslyn Oxley, remained in the gallery yesterday after police on Friday seized photographic works by world renowned artist Bill Henson.
The seized photos depicted boys and girls, some as young as 12, naked in dark, moody photographs.
The police removal of the photographs provoked a nationwide outcry over the sexualisation of children in the media and art worlds.
Yesterday Tony Oxley, the shaken husband of Roslyn, spoke outside the gallery where his wife was rehanging the remaining photographs of the exhibition – for a possible reopening as early as Tuesday – before flying to an art fair in Switzerland.
“There are some crackpots out there,” Mr Oxley said. “They have left threats on the phone. We have had threats to burn the building down. It is very worrying.”
He said the artist was taking the issue very hard, and he and Ms Oxley were concerned about his welfare.
Interstate authorities will play a role in determining what charges are laid against Henson or Ms Oxley over the images of a naked and under-age girl seized on Friday.
Rose Bay Local Area Commander Allan Sicard said the 13-year-old girl featured in the studio-produced prints, photographed by the Melbourne-born Henson, did not live in NSW.
Police seized the photographs from the gallery just before it was due to open on Thursday night.
This followed an outcry that reportedly began on a Sydney talkback radio station and continued with a formal complaint by Hetty Johnston, of the child sexual assault advocacy group, Bravehearts.
The images were seized using a warrant issued under section 91G of the NSW Crimes Act, which prohibits the use of children for pornographic purposes.
If charges are laid under the same provision, the fate of the photographs could turn on whether expert evidence can show they were being used for an artistic purpose.
Superintendent Sicard said the seized items depicted a child under the age of 16 years “in a sexual context”. Commonwealth charges could be laid over the gallery’s website and state charges over the pictures.
It is not clear if Henson will face charges, and he is yet to comment publicly.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has condemned the prints as “absolutely revolting”.
“Whatever the artistic view of the merits of that sort of stuff – frankly I don’t think there are any – just allow kids to be kids,” he said.
Art market analyst and commentator Michael Reid said the naked bodies of young women had been the subject of art for thousands of years. Mr Reid viewed the exhibition on Wednesday morning before the photographs were seized.
“I have noticed people are prepared to give their opinion without actually seeing the photographs,” he said. “I find this quite disturbing because this debate is very important.”
Mr Reid said he judged the artistic merit of the work to be valid and not pornographic.
“The main photograph in question is in the style of the Old Masters,” he said. “The model is enveloped in a black velvety shroud and she is backlit. She is very still. There is not any sexual charge about the image. It is quite restful and contemplative. She is demure.
“I was aware of the child sexualisation issue but that does not exist here in my opinion. Bill Henson had done a huge body of work that goes across a whole range of areas . . . this is a debate that has to happen – but rationally.”
Source: The Sun-Herald