Have I Got Nudes for You, A Celebration of the Naked Truth, is an exhibition curated by David Page as a riposte to an incident last year when there was a hoo-ha in the press about an exhibition of nudes by John Vestey in Council offices in N.Norfolk, taken down because of some complaints by council employees. I have contributed three small sculptures to this exhibition hosted at Harleston Gallery, 3 Old Market Place, Harleston, from 4th March - 1st April, Tuesday to Saturday, 10.00-16.00 hrs
It is odd, when you think how easily available pornography is these days, that censorship of representations of the naked body in the visual arts remains such a frequent occurance. My own work was considered unsuitable for showing at Norwich Theatre because it was felt that the depiction of naked forms would be likely to upset families, and I have had the image of a very innocent nude figure rejected from a website on the grounds of indecency. I was more amused than outraged with my experience of censorship: my figures aren't erotic, but neither are they idealised, nor monumentally abstracted, nor ironically post-modern, and that is perhaps pretty indecent of them. Their reference isn't back into art, in spite of many influences, but out towards the transience of life, represented often in the form of 'naked' body.
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'Summer', bronze
