Censorship: Contemporary Art Education

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Today (28th October 09) with utter dismay and shock I have been emailed and asked to remove my latest project and investigation into pornography by Kingston University Fine Art Dept.

I want to stress I have talked with my tutors about this work. I have had two lengthy discussions with my tutors showing these very images along with video and film along with further investigations. I have also shown this work to other students in a seminar. I also emailed my main tutor at the start of the year to inform him on this work and that it could cause concerns.

The inspiration behind this work is that people, young and old are addicted to the iconography and imagery of pornography. Opinion has it as a dirty thing/subject, something you should not watch. My main thinking behind this work was to turn these images into something precious, collectable even romantic. At first I wanted to add gold leaf to photography which did not work as well as I had hoped. So I decided to paint these images using oil paint and raw canvas. The backgrounds would be removed and gold leaf added to enhance the idea of religious icons, saints if you will. Which would take these images from pornography into something “visually unique.”

This is not a work based on smut and porn. It has to, and I will repeat that “IT HAS TOO” start out as that, and this is what these images represent at the moment on my study space at University. So I do agree that they can and would offend. But the idea of censoring or removal of this work is amazing in today’s contemporary and educational art practices.

Your thoughts are welcomed.

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Email Sent to Head of Year (3rd Year, Level 6) at Kingston Fine Art University.

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I want to keep the images on my student space/wall.

This is my work and my research. I have a right to have my space and my work on that space.
I also have the freedom of choice, speech and most importantly of expression as an artist.
Censorship, or removal of these images removes my freedom of choice, expression and speech.

If I have offended anyone I want to sit with them and ask why.
If someone (students) have complained would you pass on their email so I can arrange to talk with them on this matter, again to ask why.

You can not remove images because “they may offend” wait until they have and then lets all sit round a table and debate the matter.

This study is important and an important area for me personally. I do not want to edit my work to please students. If they are offend then good. Art sometimes does that, and it is good for people to be challenged on the visuals of art practice.

Sexuality in the arts is a taboo subject. But I am an adult along with other adults. If those other adults have a backward mindset or psychology based on sexuailty in the arts then this is not my problem to deal with. Art again sometimes does that.

Lets look at this logically: EVERYONE IN THE SCHOOL HAS BEEN to the Tate Modern show “Pop Life”, even the tutors/staff. I have sat in Seminars where they talk about it and how “inspiring” it was. Sex, Sex and more Sex. There in that show is ideas of child pornography and the use of images of children in sexual positions. In all accounts they loved it, had the time of their lives. I would hate for them to now become hypocritical about this subject matter.

If the work is removed by the school then I want answers into directly why.
I am absolutely shocked and embarrassed at this ######. All day I have been asking myself “Really?”

Please make a time and date for me to come in and talk to whoever about this. If that is you, ### and ### together then I am willing to debate and talk about this. But I am not removing the images. The school has to make that choice.

(Tutors names have been removed from email.)

Writing and Sex

I’m tired of trying to write something of consequence. I’m not writer, but I do enjoy writing.

At about five this morning I woke up and it occurred to me that getting back to sleep just was not going to happen. As it happens, my father was also awake at this early hour, smoking his brains out and watching MSNBC, or the Today Show. One of those. It was too early to join him for coffee, and instead I leafed through the pages of my incomplete, unpublished and mostly unseen novel/script. Over the years some scenes were added while others were thrown in the trash. I like what I’m left with, even though it would make little sense to anyone but me.

My friend Clare wrote a 50,000 word novel just for the fun of it, for National Novel Writing Month a few years back. She seemed to enjoy it, and it was well done. The joy of writing for the sake of writing.

There are a few people out there who dislike me in the extreme, mainly because of my political disposition coupled with how I enjoy debating philosophy and politics. If you want to talk about Skinner’s Problem of Evil, I’m your man. Existential nihilism, Keynesian economics, “The Invisible Hand” of laissez-faire economics, national health care, the Red Shift in physics, NAFTA, Obama, a woman’s right to choose, gay marriage…whatever you want to talk about, I’m sure to have a strong opinion on it. Out there on the Internet, there are some people who want to pop me in the nose for my socialist/atheist philosophy. That pleases me.

Sex.

These people get angry, and they mock my attempts at creative writing. It’s one of the few criticisms that bothers me not a bit. Not a jot or a tittle. Most of what I write is for me, and it’s writing that I like, not having written something. Once I’m done with a short story or chapter or paragraph or line, I tend to just throw it out. It’s not the key to heaven, and warrants at most a long last look. Then I move on to something else.

Writing for fun is a blast. Writing for others, to show off or tell a story, is an anxious festival of fear and loathing.

That said, I’m working on a summary of Last American on Earth. I’ll show it to friends and family and get some feedback. If there is anything there worth a serious effort, maybe I’ll work on that. I don’t know.

Now if you’ll excuse me, there is a fellow outside hammering and one of us has got to go.

Two guilty of brothel charges

A Chinese couple ran a chain of brothels, one in Plymouth, England, while another man laundered the proceeds.

But one of the guilty men skipped bail and disappeared over the weekend, emptying his room at a city B&B and leaving an unpaid bill of £70, the court heard.

Feng Jiang, aged 30, and her partner Lei Zhang, 32, both of Shandy Street, Stepney, east London, had both denied running a chain of ‘chicken houses’ in which trafficked girls worked as prostitutes.

Before the trial at Plymouth Crown Court started in early September, Feng Jiang pleaded guilty to two of the eight charges against her.

Two weeks into the trial she sacked her barristers and appointed new ones, then pleaded guilty to three counts of brothel-keeping in Exeter and London, one of controlling prostitution for gain and one of trafficking women for sexual exploitation.

Yesterday Lei Zhang was convicted of five counts of keeping a brothel, one of controlling prostitution for gain, one of trafficking women for prostitution and one of converting criminal property.

He was acquitted of a second count of converting criminal property.

However, as the seven women and four men of the jury – a fifth male juror having gone sick on the final day of the six-week trial – filed back to return unanimous verdicts on all counts, Lei Zhang was not in the dock to hear them.

If he is not found and arrested in time to be sentenced with Feng Jiang in about three weeks, he could be sentenced in his absence.

The jury found that a third man, 50-year-old Chun Hung Lau, of Lake View Drive, Tamerton Foliot, Plymouth, acted as secretary of a firm which laundered hundreds of thousands of pounds in proceeds from the vice operation.

They found him guilty of one count of converting criminal property, acquitted him of a similar charge and convicted him of mortgage fraud – obtaining a money transfer by deception.

He was released on bail by Judge Paul Darlow to be sentenced at the same court on Friday, October 30.

bron: www.thisisplymouth.co.uk [26-10-2009]

HOVERBOY FRIDAY

As one of the curators of the Hoverboy museum, it’s my weekly pleasure to unearth another piece of collectible fun featuring the “Floating Fighter of Crime”.  As regular readers know, Hoverboy was a somewhat popular superhero character, star of comics, radio shows and cartoons from the mid-thirties to early eighties, when, sadly, a video game inspired killing spree from one of his co-creators put an end to his fictional adventures.

This week, it’s the very rare “Nude Cover” from the seventies that briefly  inspired a weird fad wherein nudists would wear buckets on their heads, to hide both their identity and their ability to see other naked people.  Only in America, huh?

I apologize for the condition of this scan, I’ve spent years looking for a copy in better condition, but this is my personal copy (well read since I was a teenager) and I can’t seem to find a better scan anywhere online, including the Grand Comics Database, which seems to have a bias against old Hoverboy comics, perhaps because of the tragic events of 1981, and the aforementioned killing spree.

To see more, visit the online Hoverboy museum at:  www.hoverboy.com

Trivial

Rihanna is exposing her fans to more than her music with her new single, “Russian Roulette.”

The singer is featured nearly topless on artwork for the song, covered only by what looks to be barbed wire.

The photo fits the apparent theme for her new album, “Rated R,” which is due out Nov. 23. It will be her first CD since 2007’s “Good Girl Gone Bad,” which went multiplatinum. It will also be her first solo single since she was attacked by ex-boyfriend Chris Brown.

“Russian Roulette” will debut Tuesday on Rihanna’s Web site.

What do you think??

Rhianna

I see nothing wrong with the photo! All the bits that are not to be shown are covered. I would be more impressed if she would remove the barbed wire. At least for me!

And now… onto the Pron!

Cup o PLEASE

Art in White

Nip

Cabinet

Curled

Sexy Hang

Lacey

Door

Smooth

Holes

Top

Tin Wall

Tanning View

Face

Hooked

Look Back

Group

2 at a Time

Bare Necessities

Ah, much better. I’ve had to suffer with letting my pubic hair grow to save it for a wax before my magazine shoot, and today I finally got my brazilian wax!!! Take a look at my beautiful BARE pussy:

And look…

no bum hair! Yay!

I also had my roots redone and a tone so I’m a knockout blonde again thanks to Hairy Rumours in Coffs Harbour. If you’re ever in the area I recommend them.

I revisited an old favourite of mine, cheeky skirt shot. Back when I first tried it I had black hair:

This time I thought I’d put a school girl spin on it with my blonde hair, I probably should have used pigtails but it was a rather impromptu shoot. Maybe next time…

So, knockout or not? Leave a comment to let me know what you think =)

I talked with my cuck today because I was contacted by a ‘group’ on the adult dating site. Basically they are a couple, and not a bad looking one either, who hosts sex parties and I am considering attending one further down the track when we are more immersed in the lifestyle. I reason that if there are no men I find attractive I can always use a strap on to fuck the women or vice versa, and they take photos at these parties so expect some of those shots later on! Are you excited?

I asked if my fucking another woman would be cuckolding or helping him to be dominant, but I spose if he is included in the two girls play it is dominant and if he is not involved it is cuckolding. He said he would rather be involved in the girl/girl action, but would rather not be involved in any action I have with other men because he believes he will feel intimidated by the other man/men, which is fine by me.

Sorry if I’m boring you out there if anybody actually reads this, I can’t tell because there are no comments =(   Apart from frenchcuck, thanks for leaving a comment and supporting me. Greatly appreciated! =) More blogging after my magazine shoot on friday.

Tschüß! (see ya in German)

xox

Alina Puscau, photographed naked by her boyfriend

The top-model posed nude for the first time in the American edition of the famous men’s magazine, the photo shoot being developed by her boyfriend, director Brett Ratner.
Romanian Alina Puscau broke the ice and became the November playmate.
Although she’s a former model and worked for the famous brand Victoria Secret, the brunette scored only now her first nude appearance, which was “close watched” by her lover. The photo shoot was designed and created by none other than director Brett Ratner, her fiancé. In an interview for Playboy, Alina revealed that she’s a fashion outlaw, she loves to wear boxers and that why she often steals his underwear.