What is and isn’t acceptable to be exhibited? Should Art be censored?
In this lecture Art & Controversy, we discussed Brett Bailey’s Exhibit B and if censoring is necessary. I have many thoughts on this subject as I feel it is a topic that will continuously be brought up in the art industry. Not knowing what are limits are and how far we can go before offending the world.
Brett Bailey is a South-African artist, play writer, director, curator and director of the performance company ‘Third World Bunfight’. His conformist works, document the history of the post-colonial world. His most known works include the musical dramas Big Dada, IPI Zombi? ,iMumbo Jumbo and an admired reworking of Verdi’s Macbeth, and not to be forgotten his performance installation Exhibit B, which was unfortunately cancelled due to protesting against the message and it’s “inappropriateness”.
Exhibit B is an expressive performance exhibition featuring black performers looking at the themes of racism, 'Othering' and the colonial history of Europe in Africa.’ Brett Bailey expresses his views on this important history with no hesitation or filter. However, should his work be censored?
Brett Bailey’s Exhibit B
[1] “Our belief in the potential of art and performance to activate people, energise depressed situations, integrate the marginalised, transform and heal, underlies our ethos. Our works foreground issues, stories and situations that are all too often overlooked, suppressed or ignored. They unpack and expose the machinations of power that crush so many people or render them voiceless.” Bailey is clearly not afraid to voice his reaction on the history of the post-colonial situation in Africa and makes that apparent in this statement. When looking at work produced for Exhibit B (Human-Zoo) I can see how the performers are mainly of colour themselves, which means it’s likely that they know and understand the history that he is trying to display through the performance. The performers are likely to have a personal connection and devotion towards this theme, which I think Bailey would have wanted so that it would make it almost natural for them to convey the pain of their roles. And how they would have felt if they were living victims of that time. In my opinion, Art should be a form of expressing our thoughts beliefs as well as history, although it may make some people uneasy at times it is important that we confront our history and not be afraid to come face to face with it.
Personally being a Young Black woman I do not find it an issue that Bailey is exhibiting his portrayal of the disturbing colonial history, after reading his thoughts and meaning behind the piece I got the idea that he is trying to open our minds and influence us to accept that this is history, instead of burying it and trying to pretend as if it did not happen.
In addition to Brett Bailey’s Exhibit B Balthasar Klossowski’s famous piece “The Guitar lesson” (1934) created huge controversy and has not yet been exhibited since 1977.
Many people found the piece disturbing, of the guitar teacher who’s grabbing the young girls hair and has her hand near her genital area. But Klossowski did not see herself as a modernist and wanted to show subjects in her paintings that she considered close to heart. Which brings back the question of should art be censored? The main on-going issue seems to be that people are uncomfortable when viewing the work, but theoretically it is their choice whether they want to visit the exhibition or not so why should the artist be restricted because of their opinion?
Pain Project
In relation to Brett Bailey’s Exhibit B, My theme ‘Pain’ illustrates the brutal side of what a small majority of people live or go through, in their life. I have experienced many situations in my life, which have shaped my opinions and how I interpret certain things. Pain is a feeling we all experience, it is both mental as well as physical and as a strong believer in hope, I believe pain can have a positive aspect, as it builds us up to be stronger and more resilient human beings. Throughout life, we come across different obstacles that inflict us with pain such as, Heartache, deaths and many other life struggles. For this part of my project I particularly wanted to capture something that we all go through. In my photography, you are visualising more physical pain but my intentions are for people to realise it is more than just the physicality of what you see in the photograph, but also the narrative behind it. Having photos of a young boy with what is made to look like bruises on his face can be seen as controversial and if I was to exhibit this in a public Gallery I would probably receive a lot of backlash, as Brett Bailey and Balathasar Klossowki did. Researching about mental health, I found that one in four people in the world have or will once be affected by neurological disorders, which are usually rooted from trauma, social isolation and stress. In my opinion I believe in this day of age we are more vulnerable to suffer, mainly because of the fact that we live in a generation of social media, where we are constantly shown, through advertisements and social apps, what we should or shouldn’t look like. This is a point I express through the other half of my theme ‘ Capturing Beauty’.
Is beauty in the mind of the Beholder?
In this world it is thought that it is better being good-looking but why is that?
There is no doubt that beauty is in the eye of the beholder but through individuals. When it comes to make-up it’s hard to tell or know if it is being worn to express ourselves or to hide who we really are. Make-up has been around for thousands of years. The Egyptians would wear it is a protection and shield from the sun, which we now know is not the case. However, throughout time we have carried on wearing it, but is it to enhance our own beauty or to make ourselves look like whom we think we should? I personally find it hard not to compare my looks to other girls as in this day of age “beautiful” girls are shown and published in the media everywhere. But… who are we to define who or what is beautiful. Which was my main thought to myself when starting this project.” I wanted to capture a still image of two beautiful girls posed as if they were statues. Illustrating both sides of beauty, a more expressive bold way with a more subtle pure way. This is how I came with the idea to have some of the pictures in bright bold colours and the rest in black & white, as I feel black and white gives off a pure clean look. It’s funny how “LIGHTER” skin is considered better and more attractive to most people and has been a major underlined issue for a long time. Many celebrities (role models) have fairer skin, which has not been unnoticed. In school I would constantly hear “Light skin girls are pretty” and that always concerned me, which is another reason why I choose to take black and white analog photographs, as it gives a translucent effect.
As well as having some sort of relation to Brett Bailey’s work, I am also hugely influenced by Nancy Goldin. Goldin is an American photographer. Her work mainly explores controversial topics of the late 80’s and early 90’s such as LGBT bodies, moments of intimacy, the HIV crisis, and the opioid epidemic. Her most recognisable work is ‘The Ballad of Sexual Dependency’ (1986), which documents the post-Stonewall gay subculture and Goldin's family and friends.
However it’s not her work from ‘The Ballad of Sexual Dependency’ that I gained interest from, to influence my project, but ‘Nan One month after being battered’. This is a large-scale self-portrait of Goldin who’s staring directly at the camera. You vividly see red blood in the white of her swollen left eye that contrasts with the shade of her red lipstick, worn when posing for this photo. She has dark bruises around her eyes, which illustrate that she has been hit more than once. It’s clear that Goldin is not afraid to show the graphic physical damage, however, also appears well groomed. This is what triggered my idea of capturing a still image of “Beauty”, as when taking a photo you tend to take an image of what you want people to see, but she expressively shows her story in one photograph. When you take a photograph of a perfectly posed model you are capturing the stillness and from that stillness, you deliberately create a photo that captures one particular moment. A photo of a beautiful young girl, gracefully, holding a perfect Rose. Nevertheless, after the picture is taken the model would instinctually go into her natural manner but in that image, you only see what I chose for you to see her ‘beauty’.
Overall I can see how my work can be portrayed as controversial, as for some people it may be viewed as disturbing. Furthermore I do not think Art should be censored, I strongly believe that no artists should be restricted and held back from what they want to create and exhibit. Although I do think that if you are going to display offensive, expressive work that you should give a brief description of where you are coming from so that the viewers can get a slight understanding of the meaning behind it. There are so many galleries that exhibit work that could be seen as offensive or disturbing to someone, nonetheless Art is not created to please others but so the artist can express their selves.