:: Wog Blog ::

:: WHAT AM I THINKING ABOUT? ::

:: Tuesday, 27 May 2008 ::

Obsessions: Bill Henson: A Documentary

On the ABC tonight. Lovely.

"Profoundly ambiguous yet absolutely focussed at the same time". Henson describing his work. Two concepts that make no sense even in contrast. Clear arts blather. Come on Bill - hoping for more from you.

"Contrast of squalor....strange ambiguity,...huge resonances... ." Edmund Capon. Again with the untenable matching of concepts.

Nice picture of a road being shown now.

But people see roads a lot. If every blink is a photo, who needs a $30k Henson to show them something they already live. Still, good to see an image without nudity. Cos here comes the nudity. Teenage boy drinking with a chubby. Who on earth but a Thailand-visiting pederast would want to buy a shot like that? Ack. Gimme the pic o' the road. Please.

"One foot in the world of childhood and one in the adulthood produces a certain uneasiness that I find interesting". Henson, not mentioning the need for nudity.

"There's a tension, blah blah, blah". Edmund Capon again. They're nude Edmund. And they're underage. Just please notice that and comment on it. Explain why it is art.

Oh, now some underage getting-it-on pic, nude or very nearly. Please, more road, Bill.

"I do not think about art history when I make my pictures at all. Critics bring their own prejudices to my work, not me." Henson.

"There is something classic about his work. These are hugely and profoundly considered. There are certain resonances about twilight and mood in historical paintings which are echoed in his work." Edmund. No.

"It's hard to know what stirs people up... well, maybe it's easy to know in some cases". Henson obliquely acknowledging the fact his patrons get hard looking at his nudie pics.

"Some people might find the imagery offensive at times. That are images of despoliation and abuse but they have wondereful sensual baroque exociticism at the same time." Edmund Capon gymnastically attempting to avoid obliquely acknowledging the fact the kids are nude and viewers get chubby looking at the nudie pics.

Lord, it is just not enough to say "baroque" and "profound" and "decay" and "adolescence" and "exotic" and "it-is-beyond-photography".

Quite frankly, Henson is a way better man than his fan, Edmund Capon. And better than Phat Phil Adams, see post below. He takes a great pic of a road. And for that I am okay with him.

I don't advocate banning his nudie pics. But I do say go crazy with the mockery and the harassment and investigation. Let him defend his art. He should. In some of his pics the kids are nude. They're nude.

Nude.
:: WB 5:02 am [link+] ::

Never Fear, Adams Here

That gallumphing sound you can hear is Phat Phil Adams riding to a bloated "rescue" of Creepy Bill Henson of photos-of-nude-children-in-the-dark fame.

Phatty admits:

"...there’s little doubt that among those who crowd his exhibitions, camouflaged by sophistication of the setting, are pedophiles. (Of course, the high arts have always aided and abetted voyeurism...."

Great. Henson, must be thinkin' 'with friends like these who the hell needs enemies!'

The Phatty offers this wisdom:

"Having crusaded against what I’ve branded corporate pedophilia for years, Henson is the last person I’d be charging. His esoteric and melancholy photographs for the art gallery elite are not the problem. It’s in mass media that our kids are sexualised, that childhood is shortened and short-changed, rendered erotic for adult fun and profit. Look at the fashion industry’s catwalks and magazines. Or at the ad industry. It’s what we don’t see because we’re so used to it, because we take it for granted, that does the damage."

Adams thesis? Sure, pedophiles like Henson's work. But ads with nude girlies on contracts getting paid and selling stuff are worse. The typical lefty trope. Look over there - see how much worse that is. Pathetic. They cannot reason in a straight line. They cannot just deal with the topic at hand that is wrong.

Henson is the topic at hand. He is a weirdo with a long history of taking pics of naked underage folks and vaselining up the lense and shooting in the dark. I forget where I read it, but someone commented, maybe at Blair's, that Henson's pics would fit nicely in Josef Fritzl's dungeon. Can't say that many ads for knickers or perfume would be doing so.

The best Adams can come up with is not many people have seen Henson's work - and some blather about Lewis Carroll and Peter Pan. Utterly incapable of just admitting that Henson's work is titillating and the con is that he is abetted by galleries presenting those pics as 'thought provoking' - when the 'thoughts' are all about tits and arses and lips that are all underage and cumming all over those tits arses and lips. They just are.

I'll take the ad nakidity every single time. At least ad men admit they are selling something.

UPDATE: Tonight's 7.30 Report has arts wankers blathering away that photos of kids in the nude are....well, they none of them actually address that. Instead it's all the usual arts wankery cry about 'censorship'. And tonight the ABC is screening a documentary about Henson. Greaat. He'll speak about his art and not mention porn. It will be all 'adolescence and crossing to adulthood and blah blah'. Money down.
:: WB 7:57 pm [link+] ::

Hubba Hubba! Now This Is How Politicians Should Look

Whoo, them Italian politico gals is easy on the eye, no? Thanks Rob at terrific Wind Rose Hotel. for this bit of news you can use and also for this tag (scusi for the delay, here. Took a couple weeks off to enjoy other blogs a bit).

So here goes (albeit abbreviated to 10 questions):

1. Last movie you saw in a theater? For the life of me I cannot recall. Maybe Death Proof? Jeez, what is it that gives you good memory? Zinc or something? Whatever it is I need more of it.

2. What book are you [re]reading? I am reading The Food Taster by some guy has it set up as a translation of a 15th century Tuscan text. It's okaaay.

3. Favorite board game? Chess.

4. Favorite magazine? Still is Car magazine, even though LKJ Setright is dead and James May has moved on.

5. Favorite smells? Soffritto.

6. Favorite sounds? Third gear whining.

7. Worst feeling in the world? Hangover.

8. What is the first thing you think of when you wake up? News.

9. Favorite fast food place? Toto's Pizza, Lygon Street, Melbourne

10.Do you sleep with a stuffed animal? Yes. Flat Eric.
But only when the fiancee is travelling outta town.

And one nice thing about the person who sent this to you? One? Is Rob. Is All Good.

Who would I tag? What the heck - Romeo Mike. He owes me no favours at all - let us see what happens.

Out.
:: WB 12:39 am [link+] ::

In Bocca Al Lupo, Timmy

That is 'good luck', for youse ignorant skips. Link at left duly fixed for Tim Blair's new News Limited venture.
:: WB 12:36 am [link+] ::

See You In Court, Al

Suing Gore is some litigation I could really get behind, the lardy wanker.
:: WB 8:02 am [link+] ::

What the ...?

Who knew the Italians were so organised as to even have the nation's taxpayer details all online? Crikey, eh?
:: WB 6:57 am [link+] ::

Hillary on O'Reilly

Poke fun at her all you like as the linked LGF post does and squeal about her selling out as this Huffington Post thread does , but I saw her today getting interviewed in the "No Spin Zone" and I reckon she did real well.

Real well. And if it were down to me (which it is not cos I am an Oz citizen) I prolly would not be voting for her cos of her policies. But she knows her arguments inside out and she talked to them. She was happily dropping her 'g''s all over the place: "we gotta get goin'" and such. Strikes me as a determined candidate for the POTUS job. Determined. And by the mere fact of going on O'Reilly's haranguing show she shows she has bigger balls than Obama cos O'Reilly is hardcore nuts. He is fightin' Irish with an ego from here to eternity.

Whatever. I am in Oz. This is all theatre to me. Darn interesting but, seeing as how POTUS matters well outside the borders of the US.
:: WB 5:25 am [link+] ::

A Gigantic Waterfront Orb

Check out the Rem Koolhaas design for Dubai. Man's a genius. He got a vote from me in the Prospect public intellectual thingy.

H/T Wretchard
:: WB 4:59 am [link+] ::

Equal Treatment for Gays

Same superannuation rights, same succession rights, etc etc as for hetero couples.

I am for it. What possible reason can there be not to be for it? Gays can be couples too. Guh.

I say Goooo, Gays.
:: WB 4:54 am [link+] ::

Rightie Mayor Wins

In Rome, that is.

In London, they vote ... any minute now I guess. A rightie win predicted in some quarters. And, in a show of tedious obviousness, The Guardian is appalled at the prospect.

I say Gooooo, Boris. He hates bendy buses and I do too. They are wrong. Like those sand spiders in Iraq.

Oooh. I have just given myself the willys with that link.
:: WB 12:53 am [link+] ::