Art Monthly Australia August 2006

By Lilianna

In the August issue of “Art Monthly” I came across an interesting article by Ashley Crawford ‘Lost in translation.” It’s hard to believe that in today’s world an artist could face rejection as a result of their art being deemed offensive. But two Australian artists Tony Garifalakis and Pat Brassington showing aboard recently, found that their works were banned for this reason.

Garifalakis was taking part in the exhibition Silenzi (Silences) in Venice, Italy. There the artists were each allocated a church for use as a studio. They assumed that the churches would not be used for religious purposes during their occupation, but soon discovered otherwise. In case of Garifalakis’ work, one priest objected to the use of symbols in the works, and he was offered to exhibit only an abbreviated version of his exhibition

Brassington was taking part in the exhibition Supernatural artificial; Australian photography today, .in Hanoi, Vietnam. Brassington’s work made one of the Ministry officials “feel very bad inside”… So “bad” that her work was removed from the exhibition and the official reason given was “for the health of Vietnamese people”!