{"id":3030,"date":"2008-07-13T17:15:51","date_gmt":"2008-07-13T09:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sexnews.twfriend.org\/?p=3030"},"modified":"2008-07-13T17:16:34","modified_gmt":"2008-07-13T09:16:34","slug":"he-calls-the-shots-and-lets-audiences-decide-%e3%80%90sydney-morning-herald-20080522%e3%80%91","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sexnews.cloudns.org\/?p=3030","title":{"rendered":"He calls the shots, and lets audiences decide \u3010Sydney Morning Herald 2008\/05\/22\u3011"},"content":{"rendered":"

He calls the shots, and lets audiences decide – Arts – Entertainment<\/a>
\nHe calls the shots, and lets audiences decide<\/p>\n

Josephine Tovey
\nMay 22, 2008<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A NAKED girl emerges from the darkness, eyes downcast and hands clasped before a barely pubescent body.<\/p>\n

The image is one of several unsettling depictions of adolescents in the latest exhibition by Bill Henson, the celebrated yet sometimes controversial Australian photographer.<\/p>\n

Less than a month after the furore over Annie Leibovitz’s topless pictures of the teenage star Miley Cyrus, and at a time of heightened sensitivity about sexualisation of children in the media, Henson has returned with an exhibition, part of which is unapologetically concerned with the nude bodies of 12- and 13-year-olds.<\/p>\n

While some might consider the show confronting, there is no hint of polemic or provocation from Henson. “I’ve worked with people this age for many, many years,” he says. “They seem to be the most effective vehicle for expressing the things that interest me about humanity and vulnerability and our sense of ourselves living inside our bodies.”<\/p>\n

The exhibition, which opens tonight at the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Paddington, features familiar aspects of Henson’s aesthetic: sombre interiors, dramatic landscapes, delicate young bodies and faces emerging from the shadows.<\/p>\n

But it is the age of the human subjects that resonates most. A girl’s body, shown several times in full, is evidently beginning pubertal growth. The tentative expression on her face, looking beyond the camera, carries a sense of cautious expectation.<\/p>\n

“Kids of this age, they seem to, as all those cliches go, be half in childhood, half in the adult world,” Henson says. “They’re at a point where there is an exponential change, both psychological and physically, taking place and this all kind of creates a floating world of expectation and uncertainty.”<\/p>\n

As minors, Henson’s subjects make the decision to pose with their families.<\/p>\n

The artist, who shot much of his latest work in Europe, works alone with his subjects. “I say I want you to take a minute to look left, slow down, slow down,” he says. “And of course the slower you go, the more you see.”<\/p>\n

Henson is happy to leave interpretation to audiences. “It’s like when you’re standing in front of a picture of a road, it really does take you off into another region. It’s your road, not my road.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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