Missed from the 18th, but still worth the read, a justification for the withdrawal of the David Wojnarowicz video. Listening to Diane Rhem show yesterday and hearing someone from the U.S. Congress saying CPB (i.e. NPR and PBS) will be defunded, makes everything a threat from the current bunch of Republicans who seem to want the “free market” economy and profit seeking commercial interests to be the sole determinant to broadcast media. Those same interests are now determining the content and direction of the Smithsonian?
Smithsonian Chief Defends Withdrawal of Video:
“The top official of the Smithsonian, G. Wayne Clough, who has been sharply criticized for his decision late last year to remove a video from an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, defended that decision in a telephone interview on Tuesday morning. He said it was in the interest of protecting the exhibition as a whole, as well as protecting the Smithsonian’s larger educational mission and its ability to make a strong case to Congress for federal support.
He called the decision “painful” and acknowledged that he wished he had taken more time and consulted with more art museum directors within the Smithsonian. But “in the interest of that exhibition and this institution and its legacy and maintaining it in the strongest possible position, I think I made the right decision — in that context,” he said. “I’ll let the art world debate it in another context.”
He said the Smithsonian would hold a public forum on the issues raised by the controversy in late spring. Last weekend the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents met with an outside committee to go over how the incident unfolded and what the institution could learn from it, and Mr. Clough said the results of that meeting would be reported at the regents’ meeting on Jan. 31.
The exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, “Hide/Seek,” examines representations of homosexuality in American portraiture. The piece that was removed from the show was an excerpt from a video by the artist David Wojnarowicz called “A Fire in My Belly.” The video is in part a response to the AIDS crisis (Mr. Wojnarowicz himself died of AIDS in 1992), and it includes an 11-second shot of ants crawling on a crucifix. The video drew criticism from the religious right and some members of the incoming Republican leadership in the House of Representatives.
Mr. Clough said he worried that the controversy would spiral out of control and that the Smithsonian might ultimately be forced to take down the entire show — something he didn’t want to happen. As for the outcry that the work’s removal elicited from the art world, he said that the Smithsonian had taken some risk in putting on the show, and that it “was a little bit surprising not to get much credit for that.” But, he continued, “That comes with the territory, and I accept that.”
He noted that the Smithsonian was facing a harsh budget climate and said he expected the controversy to come up at the institution’s next Congressional budget hearings, which have not been scheduled. He said he had not yet met with the new House leaders who criticized the Smithsonian over the show, but that other members of Congress were reaching out to them on his behalf and trying to set up a meeting. “I’d love to meet them — I present myself at any chance they have,” he said.”
(Via NYT > Art & Design.)