Censorship is... tricky. You can claim that the gallery has violated your right of freedom of expression, as protected by the right to free speech in the first amendment, but that also depends on the ground rules of the gallery and what is explicitly stated in any paper work they had you sign. This is also usually an option (as far as I know) that pretty much only gets backed up by you suing the gallery.
You can say you don't want your work shown in a gallery that holds such biases, but unless you are an especially well known artist, this will harm you more than it harms them. A letter writing campaign also has the possibility for negative backlash that will affect you more than the gallery in question.
In all, your options would be far easier if it were not the cultural center in question censoring your work, but an outside force trying to get the gallery to censor your work. But it is, so the only options I can think of will harm you much more that will harm the gallery. Though if anyone asks why some of your work is on different paper than the first piece, I would suggest a polite expression of bewilderment that someone in the hierarchy of the cultural center didn't like the pieces you were originally planning on showing. But... depending on your levels of diplomacy, this could also backfire.
So I guess, to sum this all up, right now there is nothing you can really do about it. Kudos to you, though, for doing what you could (finding substitutes). And good for you, to challenge someone's perception of what is and isn't acceptable in the gender binary, even if it didn't work out quite so well for you.
Hopefully you'll be able to find less bigoted galleries in the future, and I wish you the best!
Also, keep in mind I am not in any way an expert of legal matters and the law, but am a freelance illustrator who doesn't do confrontational work and never really had to face censorship. But I wish you the best with everything.
Censorship is... tricky. Too true. The suggestions and points you make are the considerations I've been weighing the past several days, coming to much the same conclusion. My professors seem set on bringing attention to the situation, but it definitely has to be handled carefully because I am just a student still and have my reputation and future career to look out for.
...I had something else that I was going to add, but it has completely left my mind. This weekend has been all about making up for lost sleep, so coherency comes and goes a bit.
Thank you for your well wishes, though, and the thought you put into your suggestions. Several of the people I spoke with at the reception were angry about the situation and expressed an intent to write letters (to the gallery director and/or the newspaper), and I had to make sure they were aware of the subtleties of the situation before doing so.
In the end, I've come down to feeling rather disappointed by the whole thing, rather than angry. You are right that there are less bigoted galleries, and I just need to find them.
So, out of curiosity, ever heard of Robert Mapplethorpe? There's a very interesting court case about censorship and freedom of expression and what qualifies something as the difference between pornography for the sake of pornography and pornography that is artistic involving his work, sometime back in the 1970's, I think.
Because while I've never seen your work (I linked over here from copperbadge), I can't help but draw similarities between the reaction to your work (which sounds like it might be sexual--I know it contains nudes and challenges the gender binary, but those are not necessarily sexual things) and the reaction to Mapplethorpe's show.
And.. uh... if you google his work, it is most definitely NSFW.
So, good luck with everything, and do your best to enjoy the show!
Oh, definitely familiar with Mapplethorpe! While this body of work doesn't draw direct inspiration from his images, I do have several books of his work on my visual reference shelf. (Also, totally nerdy moment: I have the same birthday as he.)
You make a good point, though, about sexuality playing in the images even though they are not intended to be overtly sexual. Nudity tends to imply sexuality, regardless of body language, and some people aren't able to ignore the naked=sexual reaction and actually see what's there.
Now that the show is up, it's very exciting to see it all together. I doubt too many people would notice the absence of the nudes I did, and I overheard no comments about the sizes of my pieces. So at least this doesn't seem to have negatively impacted the rest of the show. :)
You can say you don't want your work shown in a gallery that holds such biases, but unless you are an especially well known artist, this will harm you more than it harms them. A letter writing campaign also has the possibility for negative backlash that will affect you more than the gallery in question.
In all, your options would be far easier if it were not the cultural center in question censoring your work, but an outside force trying to get the gallery to censor your work. But it is, so the only options I can think of will harm you much more that will harm the gallery. Though if anyone asks why some of your work is on different paper than the first piece, I would suggest a polite expression of bewilderment that someone in the hierarchy of the cultural center didn't like the pieces you were originally planning on showing. But... depending on your levels of diplomacy, this could also backfire.
So I guess, to sum this all up, right now there is nothing you can really do about it. Kudos to you, though, for doing what you could (finding substitutes). And good for you, to challenge someone's perception of what is and isn't acceptable in the gender binary, even if it didn't work out quite so well for you.
Hopefully you'll be able to find less bigoted galleries in the future, and I wish you the best!
Also, keep in mind I am not in any way an expert of legal matters and the law, but am a freelance illustrator who doesn't do confrontational work and never really had to face censorship. But I wish you the best with everything.
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Too true. The suggestions and points you make are the considerations I've been weighing the past several days, coming to much the same conclusion. My professors seem set on bringing attention to the situation, but it definitely has to be handled carefully because I am just a student still and have my reputation and future career to look out for.
...I had something else that I was going to add, but it has completely left my mind. This weekend has been all about making up for lost sleep, so coherency comes and goes a bit.
Thank you for your well wishes, though, and the thought you put into your suggestions. Several of the people I spoke with at the reception were angry about the situation and expressed an intent to write letters (to the gallery director and/or the newspaper), and I had to make sure they were aware of the subtleties of the situation before doing so.
In the end, I've come down to feeling rather disappointed by the whole thing, rather than angry. You are right that there are less bigoted galleries, and I just need to find them.
Reply
Because while I've never seen your work (I linked over here from copperbadge), I can't help but draw similarities between the reaction to your work (which sounds like it might be sexual--I know it contains nudes and challenges the gender binary, but those are not necessarily sexual things) and the reaction to Mapplethorpe's show.
And.. uh... if you google his work, it is most definitely NSFW.
So, good luck with everything, and do your best to enjoy the show!
Reply
You make a good point, though, about sexuality playing in the images even though they are not intended to be overtly sexual. Nudity tends to imply sexuality, regardless of body language, and some people aren't able to ignore the naked=sexual reaction and actually see what's there.
Now that the show is up, it's very exciting to see it all together. I doubt too many people would notice the absence of the nudes I did, and I overheard no comments about the sizes of my pieces. So at least this doesn't seem to have negatively impacted the rest of the show. :)
Reply
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