With a video of ants crawling over a crucifix, the Syracuse art community has joined a worldwide protest against censorship.
“It’s been a really hard-fought battle to get work like this in public,” said Rose Viviano, director of ArtRage gallery. It is one of three Syracuse groups to display “A Fire in My Belly” by artist David Wojnarowicz through Feb. 13. In November, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., withdrew the video from an exhibit after protests by some religious groups and members of Congress. See the video at http://ppowgallery.com/news.php.
The video is part of a long-running national dispute about public funding for controversial artwork. Many conservatives object to both the provocative artwork and the public support for it. Artists and free-speech advocates argue that the First Amendment protects the art work and they maintain that the public benefits from the challenging ideas funded by some taxpayer dollars.
“Just because a group of religious, conservative people find it offensive doesn’t mean it should be taken out of the marketplace,” said Roy Gutterman, director of the Tully Center for Free Speech at Syracuse University.
At the Smithsonian, the video was part of an exhibit tracing homosexual identity. The video drew protests from the Catholic League. In Congress, the video and the museum became the targets of House Speaker John Boehner, R- Ohio, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. They threatened to withhold funding to the Smithsonian Institution if the museum did not pull the video.
On Dec. 1, the Smithsonian withdrew it, saying, “As a publicly supported museum, the Smithsonian has an important research and educational mission and needs to be responsive to a large and diverse audience.” That touched off protests around the world against what artists and free-speech advocates considered blatant censorship.
At Syracuse University, the Light Work gallery brought in Jonathan Katz, co-curator of the Smithsonian exhibit, to speak its exhibit of “A Fire in My Belly.” At a showing on Feb. 7, Katz sharply criticized the politicians, accusing House Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Cantor of using the controversial video to rally their conservative political base.
“This is raw politics in America,” Katz said. “It is the responsibility of all of us to remind the Republican leadership that the Constitution still holds sway.”
Added Jeffrey Hoone, executive director Light Work: “When free speech comes under attack, it has to be responded to.”
In Syracuse, gallery directors say audience response to the video’s showing was mostly positive. At the Everson Museum, where the video prominently played in the main atrium, only two patrons called to complain, said public relations director Sarah Massett.
“Surprisingly, we’ve had very little reaction at all, either pro or against,” Massett said. When people complain, she said, she welcomes the chance to explain that the exhibit is more a statement on censorship than on any religious or sexual theme.
At the ArtRage gallery, director Rose Viviano also saw little complaint and more interest. “Even with the most horrendous blizzard of the year, people came” to the video’s premiere in December, she said.
For her, exhibiting the video is a way of fighting the “chilling effect” of censorship, she said. “If you can say it in a speech, you should be able to say it in art,” Viviano said. “I don’t think this is a country where we’re supposed to squash that impulse.”
(Jessica Palombo is a graduate student in broadcast and digital journalism.)
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