“Meaning comes from feeling”, is a favourite quote from Bill Henson. To describe Henson as a photographer seems to understate the significance of his work and the motivations behind it. He lives in a world within a world, “a retreat of quiet contemplation and dark imaginings”. Although there are classical overtones in his work, his imagery is often dark, mildly disturbing and gritty. Henson believes the best art can be life-affirming but perhaps also disconcerting and confronting and it’s this paradox that brings an edginess to his art. He claims that the images that have had the most profound impact on him artistically are paintings, not photographs.
Henson’s photograph of conductor Simone Young from 2002
The portrayal of children at around the age of puberty in much of Henson’s work requires explanation. It’s an age of transition where the person is neither child nor adult. It’s a time, says Henson, for experimentation, for self-examination when things can go very well or very badly. The late Edmund Capon thought that Henson’s portrayal of adolescents was about vulnerability, about being on the cusp of knowledge where one is aware of things but doesn’t know how to deal with them.
Untitled 2001, 127cm x 180cm
His career dates back to the 1970’s and has courted controversy within the art world from time to time. That controversy spilled over into the broader community as a result of an exhibition Henson held at Sydney’s Roslyn Oxley Gallery in 2008 – an exhibition that attracted the ire of then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
The exhibition featured images of naked adolescents (some aged only 13) that were seized by police and an argument raged over whether the exhibition was art or child pornography. Kevin Rudd described the exhibition as revolting and stressed his belief that children need to have their innocence protected.
Interestingly, then opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull, who owned a Henson work, called for level heads to prevail. He was concerned about police “tramping through art galleries and libraries” being an attack on freedom. But reports that Henson had been allowed to scout for models at a local school complicated the debate. Two things need to be emphasized here; firstly he was ALLOWED to scout for models. Secondly, where else was he meant to find them? Go doorknocking? Roam around sports grounds?
Untitled 1994, 250cm x 244cm
I have no recollection of any journalist having the courage to ask Rudd if he actually saw the exhibition, nor did any of them remind Rudd that Henson had been Australia’s representative at the Venice Biennale with similar work.
A few years after the Sydney show, I attended a talk at the Gippsland Art Gallery given by Henson during an exhibition of his work there. Someone asked him to comment on the controversy and his response was quite enlightening. As he was flying off to Sydney for the opening, a New South Wales state Labor politician was jailed on child sex charges. Henson believes that Rudd was looking for a distraction and someone got into Rudd’s ear about the exhibition, which was just what the Prime Minister was looking for.
Untitled 2017
The police carried out interviews with the parents of the children depicted in Henson’s work and no one was prepared to lay charges. So the story promptly died – at least as far as the 24 hour news cycle is concerned.
Sensibly, Henson remained silent at the time whilst many in the art community passionately came to his defence. The issue of freedom of artistic expression became central in the debate.
At the opening of the Melbourne Art Fair in 2010, Henson broke his silence over the controversy.He called for politicians to make art available for everyone in the community, not to stop people from seeing it.“We need a politics that makes the world safe for art.Art itself can never be entirely safe as it is a form of truth and truth is a wild thing for us to tame.”
Untitled 2008, 127 x 180 cm
“We see a new growth in censoriousness and an impulse to restrict the conditions under which art is produced - an absurd attempt to conflate artistic freedom and child welfare as an issue. The idea that the two can be mutually exclusive is absurd. Everything we know about the world comes to us through our bodies, the idea of banning the human body at whatever age as a subject for art is ridiculous when you look at it in a historical context.” One only has to think of the paintings of Balthus decades earlier.
Balthus, Therese Dreaming, 1938
Henson has remained in contact with many of the children (now adults) depicted in his work and their parents, and they have expressed pride in their involvement.
Henson wants politicians to be more statesmanlike and lead, rather than pander to fear (real or imagined) about the portrayal of the human body in art. Well, given the current crop of political “leaders” in this country, I would suggest that Henson shouldn’t hold his breath.
References;
ABC TV – 7:30
ABC TV - Lateline
The Art of Bill Henson, Obsessions documentary