Australian artist Bill Henson speaks out over child porn accusations
In a thinly veiled reference to the furore, in which officers raided galleries exhibiting his work, Henson said art allowed people to escape from a “world of moralism and opinionation and claptrap”.
The raids in May sparked fierce debate about censorship and child protection in Australia.
Speaking at the opening of an exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, Henson ignored questions about the controversy, but did address the subtext of his work.
The artist said all photographs were “necessarily about death.”
“The greatness of art comes from the ambiguities, which is another way of saying it stops us from knowing what to think.
He also made reference to a request by Australia’s Classification Board, which rates films, videos, exhibitions and books, to submit the June edition of Art Monthly Australia for review because it featured a naked girl on its cover.
“People do sometimes only see what they want to”, he said.
Following the raids on Henson’s work, police threatened to charge him with pornography, but later dropped the case after the Classification Board declared the images “mild and justified”.
Tags: bill henson, national gallery of australia