More Head-Scratching Coming from BALTIC

Just read this via artforum homepage. Hhhmm. Remember last week' story?
If Elton John, as stated on his site, asked for the exhibition to close because the show doesn't make sense without the picture removed, I think it's a great gesture. I now respect John much, much more, even though I still don't care for his music.
I'm pasting from the Elton John website here:

The photograph entitled Klara And Edda Belly-Dancing (1998) is one of 149 images comprising the Thanksgiving installation by renowned US photographer Nan Goldin.
"The photograph exists as part of the installation as a whole and has been widely published and exhibited throughout the world.
"It can be found in the monograph of Ms Goldin's works entitled The Devil's Playground (Phaidon, 2003), has been offered for sale at Sotheby's New York in 2002 and 2004, and has previously been exhibited in Houston, London, Madrid, New York, Portugal, Warsaw and Zurich without any objections of which we are aware.
"Elton John is known as one of the world's foremost collectors of photographic art and has several thousand photographs in his collection, including works by Man Ray, Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Diane Arbus and Ansel Adams.
"Elton John purchased the "Thanksgiving" installation from the White Cube gallery in London in 1999, and the installation is presently on loan to The Baltic Centre For Contemporary Art in Newcastle."

After I saw the title I remembered the picture, and frankly there's nothing to be alarmed about. I think the perversion is in the eye of the beholder, meaning the clueless "concerned management at BALTIC" and the cops called in. I still feel some kind of stinky internal potion concocted by some disgruntled staff. Anyone who has some tips from BALTIC, please post your comments!

Meanwhile, here's above the kind of objectionable kiddie content that should be removed from the universe.

Some boring current art world stuff

As everybody has known officially since yesterday, Kathy Halbreich just joined MOMA. It was rather predictable and hopefully she will be able to turn around the venerable and tired institution and make it less boring. I guess hiring some non-rock-star-curators could help too. Though I bet she's going to miss the Walker intelligent trustees.


Also MassMoca is dismantling the mess that was the Christoph Büchel thing. Personally I liked the idea of keeping it up, as some kind of giant mausoleum to one artist egomania, and also as some cautionary tale for curators. Like kill this kind of problem before it gets out of hands and tell said artist to sod off. As I said previously, museums are littered with thousands of artworks shown in a way the artist never intended. It's not such an horror in itself, my only problem with the practice is when there isn't a didactic or label to explain the changes and why they are implemented (usually it is for conservation reasons, and in 1 or 2 cases it can be for safety reasons too).
The sad thing is with all that money literally wasted, it would have been possible to curate at least 3 very good one-person shows or a great group show. Of course Tyler Green is all over it, but reasonably. I'm glad he is not taking the stance of the poor artist whose vision has been betrayed by the Evil Institution.
Yep, Büchel is going to have lots of problems exhibiting in a US museum anytime soon. I see a very, very bitter mid-career moment coming up. In any case, I think it also underlines the trouble with the bigger-is-better type of work or installation approach some (usually males, but not always) artists are embracing. Gigantism doesn't necessarily makes for good artworks, even if they are very spectacular (quick! someone demonstrates this to E.B!).
And, oh, for you non-museum-staff people: they are horribly expensive to ship/transport/store/install. Unfortunately, donors generally don't see the point about funding storage, conservation or shipping. Or even about building loading docks and other practical implements, sometimes. I'm still waiting to see the Big Name Donor Totally Funded Climate-Controlled Storage Area For Gigantic Sculpture or the Mega Foundation Philanthropic Fund for Shipping Ginormous And Heavy Art Turds. And the fund for hiring extra preparators and trained installers when Big Turd comes out of Expensive Storage.


Lastly, there's an article in the Guardian about how Nan Goldin's work is not porn. I haven't read it, but it dawned on me the staff-calling-in-the cops may be some kind of vicious internal retort at director Peter Doroshenko who isn't particularly well-liked there, if I remember correctly. Well, if it's the case, low blow.

OK, more stuff later. I'm trying to do real work, and I'm working at the Thanksgiving In September post. Upcoming, Revenge of the Widows!

Random pic of Halbreich out of one of the Walker many, many blog posts and press release. I don't have the credit line, sorry.

Are they really so stupid at BALTIC????

I was perusing the artforum.com homepage when I came across this snippet of information. Censorship in the art is not new, but an exhibition center alerting the police about its own exhibition content??? Hello???
Did they even have a look at their checklist prior to organizing the show? If you need to remove something under pressure from whatever upcoming imaginary censors, why call in the police for God sake? Remove that image yourself before the opening if you are such wimps.
The way the article is phrased you would think the curators had no idea what was happening inside their own gallery space. Jerome Sans, please tell me it ain't so.

I'd be ready to bet instead that some non-curatorial staff decided to be offended and called in the poulets without telling their supervisor first. I haven't seen the incriminated picture, but knowing Goldin's work I'd bet it's a snapshot of some mundane scene, since she doesn't really stage her pictures. I can't comment on it, but if staff have a problem with some artworks they need to address whatever problem from within their institution.
Personally I find David Hamilton's photographs much more obscene than whatever Goldin has ever produced. You know, these soft-porn ubiquitous color scenes you could spot on every bathroom wall during the 1970s. Repulsive with their blurred pastel atmosphere. There's an expression for this type of imagery in French: cucul la praline.

A bit of required classic Freud reading on children sexuality for the cops and the BALTIC staff wouldn't hurt, I guess. Or look at some Greuze paintings for a look at historical obscenity. Case in point: the picture above is a Greuze painting of a young girl weeping for her dead bird, i.e. her virginity. She doesn't seem any day older than 12, no? 18th century porn for you, dear reader.