Cate Blanchett has defended an artist whose portraits of nude children have sparked a censorship row in Australia.
Police shut down photographer Bill Henson’s exhibition, seized images and are also considering charging him.
His work, featuring naked 13-year-olds, was condemned by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as “revolting”.
But in an open letter, Blanchett and 42 other leading arts figures said the action risked damaging Australia’s cultural reputation.
‘Social freedom’
“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 letter said, 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.
“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.”
The exhibition at the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney was shut down by police before it could even open last week after some people complained about photographs of naked 12 and 13-year-old boys and girls.
Police seized 20 photographs from the gallery, most of them of a 13-year-old girl.
They said were seeking to interview the subjects of the photos and their parents and were still investigating whether the photographs violate obscenity laws.
‘Innocence‘
Prime Minister Rudd has stood by his criticism saying: “I gave my reaction, I stand by that reaction and I don’t apologise for it and I won’t be changing it.”
“I am passionate about children having innocence in their childhood,” he said.
Australian child advocacy group Bravehearts labelled the photographs as child pornography and exploitation and have called for Henson and the gallery to be prosecuted.
Two other galleries in New South Wales state have since removed works by Henson from their walls.
Henson, 52, has not spoken publicly since the controversy erupted.
Stripped naked and scrutinised for hours by a room full of strangers. Welcome to the world of the life model…
For anybody suffering from a poor body image the idea of standing naked and being scrutinised by a classroom full of school boys would be the ultimate in harrowing nightmares.
But for Rosemarie Orwin this extreme form of therapy has not only proved to be a confidence booster but has turned out to be a nice little earner as well.
Rosemarie, a former manager at WH Smith in Swindon, found she just couldn’t bear office work anymore and decided it was time to bare all instead.
So, a year ago, she decided to become a life model:
“I had a friend who used to model at Newbury College,” says Rosemarie, “and she said she really enjoyed it and said it was easy.
“I’ve never had any confidence in my body and thought well it’s a bit extreme but I’ll give it a go.”
Rosemarie’s debut class in the buff turned out to be a group of 40 year old art buffs from Oxford:
“It was very nerve racking because I’d never been in front of a group of strangers with my clothes off before. And of course they’re standing behind their easels measuring you and pencils are coming out at you.”
“But literally after I’d finished I came out and punched the air with complete euphoria saying ‘I did it, I did it’.”
Despite not being the quintessential voluptuous, big breasted muse, since taking her clothes off Rosemarie’s career has quite literally taken off.
She now poses for art classes, sketching groups, sculptors and photographers all over the south of England. But even as a seasoned model some classes can still prove to be a bit of a challenge:
“The first boy’s school I went to, I didn’t realise it was a boy’s school and I actually did blush. I went into the room and the first boy came in and than another, and than another and I thought this is obviously a boy’s school.
“I thought ‘Calm down, just control yourself, you’re old enough to be their mother’. Anyway I just calmed myself down and it was fine but I could feel the beads of sweat coming up and it was quite nerve racking.”
For life models, stripping off and posing for anything from a few minutes up to an hour without a break, it pays not to get too artistic with your poses:
“You don’t know if it’s going to be comfortable after 20 minutes and even now I’ll choose a pose quite often that I’ll think after 20 minutes ‘I really shouldn’t have done this one’.
“When I first started I was obviously very keen to please everybody and do what they wanted and I would sit in a lot of pain without saying anything and I’ve almost literally crawled out of the door I’ve been in so much pain.”
And as for trying to keep still, no matter what, for Rosemarie it’s all a question of mind over matter:
“Sometimes when you have a really desperate itch and you have to scratch it, you can make yourself believe that it’s not itching and it does go away. It’s amazing what your mind can do to stop certain bodily functions… shall we say.”
But pain, tedium, boredom and chilly drafts aside are the final artistic results flattering?
“Facially, I would say most of the time, it’s not flattering. I look quite gruesome, body wise that varies, but I don’t take that as a personal thing.”
And you can see why…
Rosemarie’s diary is filled to the end of May, she has body painting bookings for a corporate event in Reading, is being turned into a range of ornaments for an international ceramics company and is even perhaps to become a model for a mannequin sculptor.
And just in case there’s a chance of Rosemarie having to spend too much time with her clothes on she’s organised a series of life drawing workshops in Swindon the first of which, on March 20th, is already booked out…
Rosemarie is sitting pretty in every sense of the word…
“It sounds odd, I know, but I do feel a lot more confident. I don’t know why it’s just the way that’s happened.”
Rosemarie will be the life model for New College Swindon’s first ever Life Drawing course. The classes kick-off on Monday 19th September and run for ten weeks between 6.30 and 8.30pm at New College’s Queen’s Drive campus.
