A child's drawing from Gaza; part of an exhibition that was to have been held by The Museum of Children's Art in Oakland, California, entitled "A Child's View of Gaza." Under protest of pro-Israel lobbyists, the exhibition was cancelled. See no evil and it doesn't exist, apparently. But even the little children of Gaza know where the weapons come from that kill their parents, their siblings, their friends, their relatives. Silence the little children and maybe it will all go away.
Excellent discussion of the shutdown at Democracy Sometimes: "Imagine for a moment that MOCHA were presenting an exhibition of Tibetan children’s art, and supporters of the Chinese government protested that allowing people to see drawings by children who lived under Chinese occupation was anti-Chinese. Not only can I not conceive that MOCHA would cave in to the pressure and cancel the show, but if they did, every human rights and civil liberties organization in town, or in the country, would be screaming foul. In fact, I would bet that the same Jewish organizations who act so decisively and aggressively to shut down anything that might generate sympathy for Palestinians would be among those decrying censorship by pro-Chinese forces."
For more examples of Anti-American art featured here at The Cahokian, click here.
i think this is a bigger problem than just pro- or anti-palestine. the attitude seems to be that unpleasantness should only be recognized in hindsight. now we have a 9/11 museum, a holocaust museum, etc. these are things we should remember and be aware of, but the death and destruction part is always suppressed until enough time has passed for us to say "man that was terrible, i'm glad we've learned from it."
ReplyDeleteand we never have.
besides, art is art. just because it is culturally offensive to some people doesn't mean it should be barred. on the flip side of this coin, i think an exhibition on white nationalist artwork and literature, from an educational standpoint, would be a very interesting thing. shit, it probably exists somewhere. i'd check it out. how else can you understand people you disagree with than to see how they express themselves in media?
fuck anyone who wanted to shut this down. fuck anyone who wants to shut down any exhibition. learn from what you disagree with.