Art a hot topic

The sculpture of the male anatomy was deemed inappropriate by Cardinia Shire. 228898_03

By Mitchell Clarke

Cardinia Shire Council has come under fire for an apparent censorship of art, after a sculpture of a penis was removed at a new exhibition in Pakenham.

The Cardinia Art Society’s New Beginnings art exhibition, which features an eclectic and interesting mix of 130 artworks, has been dubbed the most “creative, diverse and exciting” collection of artwork.

But it’s also proven to be quite controversial, with Cardinia Shire Council accused of attempting to censor artworks.

Art Society president Jillian Ronald said the council first became concerned about “gender equity issues” after artwork of a nude woman was dubbed a potential breach of the “gender equity legislation”.

“I thought it was kind of weird because it wasn’t really what I was expecting. I read the gender equity legislation and could find no reference to art whatsoever,” Ms Ronald explained.

The artwork was allowed to be exhibited, however organisers had to be place it down the back of the gallery.

“They said we had to do that to ensure that anyone couldn’t accidentally view it and we had to put a sign up to state that artistic nudity featured in the exhibition. It really wasn’t that offensive at all,” Ms Ronald said.

The controversy continued from there, after an artist’s sculpture, which depicted male anatomy, was removed at the request of the council.

Now, an empty plinth remains without the sculpture. The artist behind the piece wrote: “I have been denied my artistic freedom of expression”.

“The issue morphed from gender equity to nudity, which became a whole new issue,” Ms Ronald added.

“It’s been very difficult trying to curate an exhibition with the council finding issues that keep coming up.”

Ms Ronald said she was unaware she had to meet any conditions relating to artistic censorship.

“It’s a bit heavy handed by the council I think. Perhaps they were looking for issues when there weren’t any,” she said.

“From an artists point of view, we weren’t looking for any kind of issues, so we did resent the shire trying to impose these boundaries on our exhibition.”

A Cardinia Shire Council spokesperson said: “To ensure visitors are aware the exhibition features artistic representations of nudity, measures were put in place, including a note at the gallery entrance and locating artworks that may be sensitive so they are visible only within the space”.

“Artist statements were also made available for each piece to ensure visitors could contextualise the artwork and gain a greater understanding of their meaning,” the spokesperson added.

“The day before the exhibition opened, a sculpture titled ‘Conversation starter / Enhancement piece’ was included at the last minute without an artist statement.

“Following a review and discussion, organisers then removed it from the exhibition.”

The New Beginnings exhibition was forced to close during the snap five day Covid-19 lockdown, but will reopen on Thursday 18 February.

“It’s an amazing exhibition which celebrates and showcases creativity that emerged during lockdown,” Ms Ronald said.

“We’d really encourage people to come down and take a look. There’s a lot of diversity and something for everyone to see.”