CENSORSHIP IN ART
Join me on April 21 @1PM CST for a Twitter Spaces about Censorship in Art
Join me on April 21 at 1 PM CST on my Twitter account @Stellabelle for a lively Twitter Spaces about censorship in the art world, by the artists themselves.
The censored artists: @RasAlhagve @GHOULix3 @TheMarjan @NFTipi @patrickamadon @stellabelle @EmpressTrash @vwestphoto_nb @begumbitir
Here are our stories (in alphabetical order):
Ras Alhague
Censored Art:
“In early 2021, I was contacted for an interview by a writer for an online platform that I'd prefer not to name as of right now. It was a rather big website for art, design, and architecture garnering 5.5 million impressions per month across their digital properties. I was obviously excited for the opportunity and agreed to the interview. Due to the nature of my work, I asked if I needed to send censored versions of my images (which I always prepare to share on social media) but they assured me (twice, in fact) that it wasn't necessary, that they found my work "highly tasteful and fascinating", and they didn't mind "some nudity". I replied to their questions, send in my artworks, and they said I'd have to wait 8-10 weeks for the article to be published. Four months later I reached out to inquire about the article (as well as ask to amend my name in case it had already been published and they just forgot to inform me about it) and the editor responded with "Your story did get published but unfortunately had to be brought down due to adult content in visuals causing a notification on our website from various countries. My apologies to miss giving you this update." When I expressed my disappointment and confusion as to why I hadn't been informed I received a rather passive aggressive answer and was told that nothing could be done. They also said "If it makes any difference, this is the first ever story we have had to pull down". Also, I did not receive a response from the writer who interviewed me, just his editor, the writer did not respond at all. I tried to be vocal about it after it happened but I don't have a big platform and my posts about the situation received barely any attention. Plus with what I do, I'm just used to being censored all the time on social media. But it was a bit painful to see the same website publish multiple articles about other glitch artists in the following weeks (part of the reason why I don't want to share the name of the website)." -Ras Alhague
Patrick Amadon
Censored Art:
Patrick Amadon’s tweet about this:
https://twitter.com/patrickamadon/status/1636742835998433280?s=46&t=A_QwpXXgaE4s4ap_xKDbsw
ARTnews:
“A department store in Hong Kong took down a digital artwork containing hidden references to defenders of free speech during the city’s Art Week activities. The artist behind the work said the incident is evidence of the erosion of free speech in the city by the Chinese government.
No Rioters by Los Angeles-based artist Patrick Amadon was displayed on a large digital billboard, measuring 230 by 65 feet, on the side of the Sogo department store in the busy Causeway Bay shopping district. The red and black glitchy video included names, ages, and jail terms of convicted protestors displayed in flashes of Matrix-style text. Amadon told the Guardian these details were shown too quickly to be noticed by the naked eye, and could be seen by viewers through photographs.
It felt like there was going to be a weak link in the censorship process, so I thought I might be able to sneak something up there,” Amadon told ARTnews. “There’s a ‘Free Hong Kong’ graffiti tag and I snuck in ‘No Rioters Under Tyranny’ in the bottom left corner.”
“I just wanted it to go up before it obviously got caught,” he said.
For Amadon, the removal of No Rioters “irrefutably” demonstrated how much things had changed in Hong Kong compared to a few years ago, in contrast to the positive news coverage the city’s reopening. “I think the piece being pulled down completed the piece,” he said. “A lot of people in the art world saying ‘Hong Kong is back’ was completely glossing over the erosion of freedoms.”
B.B.
Censored Art:
“This work from my performance ‘Face of the Other’ represents why I tried to be my other and who I was. Within it, I felt free with my art for the first time. And I released this work to highlight the women's rights issue and breast cancer; I planned to spend my HPV vaccine costs by selling it. It was censored by the voxel gallery (European nft community)” -B.B.
Tank Man was unlisted on opensea by people who don't know what art is. I was exhausted by people who mint art historical assets and elements as NFTs. I was talking about OpenSea could find a solution for it with AI development on their infrastructure. So I decided to mint the most well-known picture in history. Also, I intended to provoke people to see how opensea allows everything without providing creators security. ( I was exhausted of copy-paste artists because you can find tones of works from art history. It wasn't plagiarism or appropriation (there was no narrative or philosophical, artistic context).” -B.B.
Empress Trash
Censored Art:
“April 2022 I was approached by a curator in LA about having my damsels in a show about figurative art for NYC. I was excited and agreed. Fast forward a few weeks, and the same curator dmed me to say she couldn’t include damsels because her co-curator will not have them at all - that the co-curator had too “academic of a view” and even was so upset by them a vein was popping out of her head. This was all implied in messages cause of their ties to sex work (10% of sales goes to a mutual aid fund run by sex workers for sex workers). The curator asked if I could swap pieces cause they wanted me in the show, just not the damsels. This upset me, but I felt she was genuine in she tried and I was used to damsels causing reactions because of its ties to sex work. I sent my glass ceiling disco piece and forgot about it. Then they asked me to spaces to talk about it. In the spaces they sprung on me the mysterious co curator - who wasn’t even in the room - said I was misogynistic for creating them. I said well my art is a reflection and if that’s how they feel maybe they need to look within. I was upset after that and felt crummy because I felt I had to justify me and my art again existing instead of a convo of understanding or depth. The last part is this figurative art show that was in NYC for nft nyc 2022, never sent me receipts of my replacement piece being exhibited in the way they said it would, but other artists got pictures. So long story short - I was asked to be in a figurative art show with damsels, an unknown curator flipped out and said no because in her mind my work is misogynistic because of its ties to consensual sex work, and the replacement piece was never on display in nyc.” -Empress Trash
ghouli
Censored Art:
Ghouli’s tweet about this:
https://twitter.com/GHOULix3/status/1642021919351291904
“Last summer around nft nyc I had my account suspended indefinitely because of nipples in my profile pic. It was really difficult because i put a lot of work into my account and was the center of money making at the time. I honestly didn't know it was a violation of the community guidelines and its a fucking stupid guideline. thankfully i got my account back this February.” -ghouli
Marjan Moghaddam
Censored Art:
“Venus and Her Adonises was part of my Of Revolutions collection, it was exhibited in 2013 with the whole collection at LACDA. the collection then traveled to other shows for 3 years, but Venus and Her Adonises and Scattering of the Desiring Machines were never shown again, because of my abortions mentioned in the piece and also the fully erect dick pics. Specifically an Art Center couldn't show it because they were all ages, and 3 other galleries could not show it. It was not selected for any exhibition again after 2013, while the rest of the collection that it was from continued to exhibit internationally for 3 years. Specifically an art center said they were all ages and could not show it, and also 3 galleries that opted to show other prints.” -Marjan Moghaddam
Stellabelle
Censored Art:
My censored digital painting, Bonfire of the Vanities Redux, was exhibited and part of the M1563 inaugural sale during Miami Art Week in December 2022. This is the Royal House of Medici, yeah the real Medici in Italy.
The painting that I finally minted on Super Rare three months after I had been censored by Medici was never included in the M1563 inaugural sale in Miami. They did include my painting after I was told to remove certain parts of it.
Here’s my story:
I was already accepted into the inaugural Royal House of Medici show in December 2022 and I had signed an NDA. I need to mention one thing: I collaborated with Michael Stark on this painting. Michael Stark (friend, super collector, Medici Community Organizer) and I talked a lot about what scene I would illustrate and he gave me some great ideas which I used.
He and I worked back and forth for a week or more discussing details, and I added a lot of people he suggested into the fire. If you look closely you can find many people who have been persecuted, censored, killed or have otherwise made some big contribution to society. The main topic of my painting is censorship. So, after a few weeks of working diligently on the painting, I finally shared my painting.
Then I got the call.
When I got the call saying someone in the higher ups in the Medici chain had decided my art needed to be “sterilized”, I was in shock. Utter complete fucking shock. The woman’s body that was sawed in half was the problem according to them. I was told it was too grotesque, too violent, and also didn’t properly depict the Italian history. Also, I had put His Royal Highness into the scene, and that was problematic as well. I was instructed to replace the sawed in half woman’s body with something less violent, less bloody, more palatable, and fully clothed. I really got the sense that these people at the top of the Medici food chain were more worried about how my art would reflect on their precious egos and legacy.
I spent quite a long time on the phone screaming, and at one point I remember threatening to expose this whole thing. I was disgusted, angry, and even though others have pointed out, I am not a Chinese artist and don’t have to deal with totalitarian governments, for me personally, I was in a really shit situation. I really felt like walking out right then and there. I should have but I had already agreed the show, made plans to go to Miami, and was so personally invested in sharing my artwork, that I instead caved in and accepted the censorship.
In short, I was a total coward.
It made me wonder how many other artists throughout history have been cowards, but we never knew about it. My friend, collector and collaborator, Michael defended me during that call. He said it was not Medici’s role to censor artists, and I thought for a minute we would win. But we didn’t. They convinced me to change my art, remove the severed woman’s body, and replace it with something more palatable. I am ashamed and humiliated to admit, I did exactly that. I changed my art and did as I was told. BIG HIT TO MY CONSCIOUSNESS AND MY INTEGRITY!
In this art, the uncensored version above, I had created it a few weeks after Mahsa Amini, the woman whose death ignited a revolution in Iran was killed. The woman severed in half symbolized her, even though it wasn’t clear it was her. To me it WAS HER. Sometimes in art, I like to add a symbol that only I know about. This was one of those times. The woman who was being sawed in half represents all of us who have been killed, silenced, humiliated, abused, neglected or censored. Here is the censored version, the NFT that Medici has under their control.
I also want to say, “Fuck You” to whoever in the Royal House of Medici decided to censor my art.
Tipi
Censored Art:
“I have and my daughter and other indigenous females have had posts removed from instagram when speaking out about Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women as my twin sister is one. i also had an image that was said publicly to be included in an exhibition but when the files were sent of the images that were displayed my piece was not there and i asked if i was in fact not included in the show.. he was going to look into it..and i never heard from him again. i believe it was intentional to leave it out and was from a larger canadian group.” -Tipi
Victoria West
Censored Art:
“One of my most controversial images, #MeatToo was created during the 2018 “Me Too” movement and represents the objectification of women and the commodification of flesh. Ironically, this piece was judged by another platform as "objectionable" and banned. The community quickly rallied behind me as an artist, in a unified movement against censorship in art. Though the piece was later reinstated, the damage had been done. It was important to me that when this work was re-minted, its new home would be a platform built on a more solid foundation. This is an award winning image: Merit (silver) 2019 Professional Photographers of Canada Image Competition, Bronze 2019 Portrait Masters Awards.” -Victoria West
Source: https://crypto.writer.io/p/censorship-and-vegan-nfts-conversation
Duly noted. Reminder set.