Censorship, Round Two.
O HAI, CENSORSHIP. I MISSED U.
Except for the part where I didn't.
I posted early yesterday afternoon about a show reception this weekend. About four hours after I posted that, I got a call about the images I had submitted for said show. It was bad news delivered unwillingly, but bad news none-the-less.
I'll break this down into simple parts because that's all I'm capable of doing right now.
The Bath House Cultural Center in Dallas, Texas will not exhibit the nude images I made. They will show the other nudes that have been submitted by other artists for the show, but they will not show mine.
There are two key differences between the nudes they are displaying and my nudes:
1. The other nudes are not very big. 4"x4" for some, and ~20"x24" for others. My nudes are 44"x54.5". Scale matters. Large-scale images are more imposing and confrontational. Small images are intimate and private. They are also easy to ignore.
2. The other nudes feature widely-accepted body shapes and gender presentations. Mine feature all sorts of body shapes and a non-binary gender presentation.
So. 4:00ish yesterday, Enrique at the BHCC called to tell me that someone over his head said my images could not be shown. He was disappointed, but his hands were tied in that regard. He was willing and able to work with me to get replacement images so that I would not have only one image in the show.
I immediately selected two non-nude images and frantically began adjusting and printing. The Epson 10600 printer is the only printer we have that prints 44" wide. It ran out of paper before completing the first whole print.
At this point, I started crying. I was panicked. The show opens on Saturday, I put all this work into getting it together and I was seeing it go down the toilet right in front of me because some nameless, faceless person didn't want to show big pictures of big naked women.
In the end, I printed six replacement images on the Epson 7880, which only prints 24" wide. My replacement images are approximately 1/4 the size of the original submissions. They are on different paper, and have slightly different hanging needs. I'm not thrilled, but I feel that this is better than what could have been.
When I dropped them off at the BHCC this afternoon (less than 24 hours after the phone call, and after staying at school until 11:30 to print and arriving again this morning at 8:00), I was able to talk with Enrique. I was not brave enough (read: didn't trust myself not to cry again from stress and upset) to ask explicitly why they would not show the nudes, but he indicated to me that the size of the images was only part of the problem.
Allow me to reiterate that:
The scale (size) of my images was only part of the reason they were censored. This leaves the content of the images as the only other factor for censorship.
It was not indicated to me if any one image in particular was problematic, but as they refused to show any, I would have to guess that they were all considered offensive.
At this point, I have no concrete suggestions for actions to be taken. I am deeply disturbed that this has happened, and immensely saddened that a well-known gallery space in Dallas would act this way. Even more so knowing that the community college I attend in the much more conservative Plano not only showed these images but defended them from censorship only months ago. If anyone decides to contact the BHCC about this, please do not take your upset out on Enrique. This decision came from above his head. I am walking carefully around this because I do not wish and cannot afford to risk souring a gallery relationship, especially when ten other artists are on this ship with me.
Except for the part where I didn't.
I posted early yesterday afternoon about a show reception this weekend. About four hours after I posted that, I got a call about the images I had submitted for said show. It was bad news delivered unwillingly, but bad news none-the-less.
I'll break this down into simple parts because that's all I'm capable of doing right now.
The Bath House Cultural Center in Dallas, Texas will not exhibit the nude images I made. They will show the other nudes that have been submitted by other artists for the show, but they will not show mine.
There are two key differences between the nudes they are displaying and my nudes:
1. The other nudes are not very big. 4"x4" for some, and ~20"x24" for others. My nudes are 44"x54.5". Scale matters. Large-scale images are more imposing and confrontational. Small images are intimate and private. They are also easy to ignore.
2. The other nudes feature widely-accepted body shapes and gender presentations. Mine feature all sorts of body shapes and a non-binary gender presentation.
So. 4:00ish yesterday, Enrique at the BHCC called to tell me that someone over his head said my images could not be shown. He was disappointed, but his hands were tied in that regard. He was willing and able to work with me to get replacement images so that I would not have only one image in the show.
I immediately selected two non-nude images and frantically began adjusting and printing. The Epson 10600 printer is the only printer we have that prints 44" wide. It ran out of paper before completing the first whole print.
At this point, I started crying. I was panicked. The show opens on Saturday, I put all this work into getting it together and I was seeing it go down the toilet right in front of me because some nameless, faceless person didn't want to show big pictures of big naked women.
In the end, I printed six replacement images on the Epson 7880, which only prints 24" wide. My replacement images are approximately 1/4 the size of the original submissions. They are on different paper, and have slightly different hanging needs. I'm not thrilled, but I feel that this is better than what could have been.
When I dropped them off at the BHCC this afternoon (less than 24 hours after the phone call, and after staying at school until 11:30 to print and arriving again this morning at 8:00), I was able to talk with Enrique. I was not brave enough (read: didn't trust myself not to cry again from stress and upset) to ask explicitly why they would not show the nudes, but he indicated to me that the size of the images was only part of the problem.
Allow me to reiterate that:
The scale (size) of my images was only part of the reason they were censored. This leaves the content of the images as the only other factor for censorship.
It was not indicated to me if any one image in particular was problematic, but as they refused to show any, I would have to guess that they were all considered offensive.
At this point, I have no concrete suggestions for actions to be taken. I am deeply disturbed that this has happened, and immensely saddened that a well-known gallery space in Dallas would act this way. Even more so knowing that the community college I attend in the much more conservative Plano not only showed these images but defended them from censorship only months ago. If anyone decides to contact the BHCC about this, please do not take your upset out on Enrique. This decision came from above his head. I am walking carefully around this because I do not wish and cannot afford to risk souring a gallery relationship, especially when ten other artists are on this ship with me.