Cate Blanchett: Nude Photos Of Young Teenage Girls "Art"
Hollywood actress Cate Blanchett has come out in defense of a new art exhibit in Sydney, Australia, featuring nude photographs of twelve- and thirteen-year-old girls, saying the exhibit is "art" and efforts to shut it down "censorship":
Blanchett joined 42 other leading arts figures from Down Under in signing an open letter slamming Mr [Kevin] Rudd [the Australian Prime Minister]Â over his criticism artist Bill Henson's photographs of naked 12 and 13-year-old children.Police shut down Henson's exhibition at a Sydney art gallery last week and confiscated 20 of his photographs as part of an investigating into whether charges should be laid. [...]
"The potential prosecution of one of our most respected artists is no way to build a Creative Australia and does untold damage to our cultural reputation," the mother of three said the letter, which was addressed to Australia's environment minister and the premier of New South Wales state.
"We should remember that an important index of social freedom, in earlier times or in repressive regimes elsewhere in the world, is how artists and art are treated by the state."
The letter is signed by Blanchett, whom Rudd visited in hospital only days after the birth of her latest baby in April and whom he invited to Canberra to take part in his national 2020 conference on Australia's future. Other signatories include Nobel winning writer John Coetzee.
"We wish to make absolutely clear that none of us endorses, in any way, the abuse of children," they said. "Henson's work has nothing to do with child pornography and, according to the judgment of some of the most respected curators and critics in the world, it is certainly art."
Since when are nude photographs of girls this young considered "art"? We arrest people for taking photographs of children this young in a sexual setting, and sometimes even if they are in a non-sexual setting. But if we label it "art" and put it in a gallery, suddenly that is okay? Continued on the next page
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