Pointing Fingers

Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Condemn No Evil

The latest issue of Index on Censorship magazine includes an interview with Jytte Klausen about her new book on the Danish cartoons crisis and why Yale University Press chose to publish it without any illustrations. Index on Censorship positions itself as Britain's "leading organisation promoting free expression."

With more than a touch of irony, Index on Censorship also elected to publish the interview without including the cartoons, instead publishing the board's decision not to publish the cartoons, and the sole but vigorous dissent of a board member, Kenan Malik.

Islamic scholar Reza Aslan, describing Yale’s original decision as “idiotic”, pointed out that he has “written and lectured extensively about the incident and shown the cartoons without any negative reaction”. And, as Jo Glanville, editor of Index on Censorship, observed in an article in the Guardian earlier this year critical of Random House, pre-emptive censorship often creates a “self-fulfilling prophecy”. In assuming that an “offensive” work will invite violence one both entrenches the idea that the work is offensive and helps create a culture that makes violence more likely.

Back in February 2006, I made the decision, in my capcity as editor and publisher of Annoy.com, to publish all of the Danish cartoons.

Along with the following explanation

"The following 12 images were published in Denmark's Jyllands Posten newspaper, which sparked the furor among Muslims globally. The reason they are being displayed here is not to provoke, despite this site's name, but to allow our users to make an informed evaluation themselves. For the same reasons, we published Nick Berg's beheading and James Kirkup's poem. After two federal court cases, one before the United States Supreme Court, Annoy.com’s hard fought commitment to free speech – not an automatic guarantee, even in the West -- cost a lot in terms of time, determination and resources.

We are not oblivious to the fact that religious and cultural differences are far more complex than anything we could articulate in this small space, but our fundamental belief is this. Freedom of expression is not reserved for those wishing to express their religious beliefs, but also those who question them."

Author of The Jewel of Medina, Sherry Jones' response to Index on Censorship's decision on Redroom: No Laughing Matter: Index on Censorship Censors Itself

Index of Censorship magazine: See No Evil

Index on Censorship board member, Kenan Malik's, dissent.

Fuck You Holidays from The Gap

I happened to push pause whilst watching a recording of an episode of Glee (yes, I watched it), and voila!! the Holidays cover for December/January 2010 for Annoy.com was born. No manipulation needed. Thanks Gap. Fuck you too!

The Wall: No Darks in the Class

In 1980, the song, The Wall II, from Pink Floyds album, "The Wall," with its haunting chorus of school children singing we dont need no education, was adopted as a protest anthem by black students during the "Elsie's River" uprising in South Africa, protesting against the institutionalized propaganda and racial bias in the official curriculum. On May 2, the song, album and movie were banned by the Apartheid government.

This video piece was created for "Banned and Recovered, Artist Intervention," in connection with the California Exhibition Resources Alliance (CERA) for which 37 artists were invited to recreate or reinterpret a cover for a book that had been censored. Although most artists chose subject matter that had been censored in the USA, I focused on a musical that was banned in South Africa.

To communicate the relationship between censorship and Apartheid, I chose two songs for which I rewrote the lyrics as subtitles while retaining the original music, given the relevance of Pink Floyds commentary on the British educational system, and the extent to which it influenced white schools in South Africa. The censorship of "The Wall" and my exposure to it punctured the elaborate balloon of deception that architects of Apartheid had so effectively constructed to surround me. It precipitated a passionate leaning toward freedom of expression, and its power to reach and connect with people in ways previously unimaginable.

I juxtaposed imagery of my privileged, sheltered upbringing as a white South African in contrast to that of Hector Pieterson, who was shot and killed on June 16, 1976, and whose death precipitated the Soweto Riots. We were the same age. I also combined photographs I shot on a recent trip to Alexandra, formerly a "township" with some found imagery for which it was difficult to ascertain the creative source.

"Banned & Recovered: Artists Intervention" is divided into four themes: Banning Books and the First Amendment at Crossfires; Books on Trial; Race, Gender and Justice; and Burning Books: the Extreme Ban and includes original book art, mixed media, paintings, photographs, and multi-media pieces.

The exhibition is inspired by the exhibition "Banned & Recovered: Artists Respond to Censorship" that was on display at the San Francisco Center for the Book and the African American Museum and Library in Oakland in 2008. An earlier version of this piece was exhibited at the African American Museum and Library in Oakland.