Hung and Drawn

The Sydney Morning Herald National April 8, 2010 The Diary p.22
http://www.smh.com.au/national/the-diary/radio-shock-spreads-south-20100407-rsbh.html
JACQUELINE MALEY AND LEESHA MCKENNY

HUNG AND DRAWN The sting of rejection is cruel, but Sydney’s Tap Gallery has sought to ease the pain of artists knocked back from the Archibald Prize by hosting a ”refusés” exhibition.

Like all good salon des refusés, it looks as if it will be controversial. The exhibition will feature portraits of the Chaser comedian Andrew Hansen, the federal MP for Sydney, Tanya Plibersek, Ian Turpie of The Price is Right, and a contentious painting of the paedophile Dennis Ferguson and his protector, Brett Collins of Justice Action.

The gallery’s manager, Lesley Dimmick, stood by her decision to hang the portrait, but made it clear that Ferguson himself was definitely not invited to the exhibition launch on Saturday.

”We have an open policy and we are not into censorship,” she told the Diary.

”It’s only a painting, it’s not Ferguson himself,” she said. Collins said Ferguson’s attendance on Saturday was ”still being negotiated”.

The gallery is hoping either Plibersek, the local MP, or the NSW Arts Minister, Virginia Judge, will speak at the opening. But if Ferguson looks like turning up, those hopes will presumably be shot.

The portrait will hang at the
TAP Gallery in “The real refuses” exhibition.

Gala opening Saturday the 10th of April, 5 to 8pm.
Runs to Sunday the 18th April., open 12noon to 6pm daily.
1/278 Palmer St, Darlinghurst NSW 2010
(02) 9361 0440 www.tapgallery.org.au

Comments supplied to JA
It might interest you to read about the Brass Eye controversy, if you’re not familiar with it. It’s a satirical comedy show by an English comedian called Chris Morris, whom we admire greatly. One episode which parodied the way paedophilia creates these kinds of media feeding frenzies, and perhaps predictably caused one himself, showing just how completely the wowsers can
sometimes miss the point, and why there’s no point even trying to talk sense to people who are determined to feel outraged. Details here – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass_Eye#Paedophilia_special_.282001.29″

There have been some interesting comments in the media since the painting did not make the finalists. One commented below…
Personally, I was hoping the one of Dennis Ferguson would win as it said something about a social issue where a person like Ferguson is being protected, instead of jailed for the term of his natural life. While the portrait of Tim Minchin is much better quality in the regard that it could almost be a photograph, I just think that art is more about saying something about something than about pixel quality on my monitor.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2829230/news_commentary_27_march_2010__pg3.html?cat=9

http://bigpondnews.com/articles/Entertainment/2010/03/18/Faceless_man_sums_up_Archys_year_441545.html

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/packing-room-prize-for-baker-portrait-rocks-artists-world-20100317-qfqx.html?autostart=1

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/heads-will-roll-at-archibald-prize/story-e6frg8n6-1225842055813?from=public_rss

Justice Action