In a strange and troubling move that looks suspiciously like censorship, Chicago Public Schools have removed Persepolis, a classic graphic novel that tells the story of author Marjane Satrapi’s coming-of-age in Iran, from all seventh-grade classrooms.
Censorship
Posted inOpinion
Michelangelo’s David Is Too Hot for Japan
Okuizumo, Japan, stands paralyzed by an icon of Western art. A 16-foot-high replica of Michelangelo’s triumphant David sculpture was installed in the middle of a public park in the southern Japanese town, but locals think it might be a little bit too public.
Posted inArt
We Got Facebook Censored
I suppose it was only a matter of time, but yesterday, it finally happened: Hyperallergic was Facebook censored.
Posted inNews
College Faces Backlash Against Homoerotic Art
Facing criticism and threats from hardline Islamists, the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan, has shut down an academic journal that published a series of homosexually suggestive paintings. The college pulled the issues from bookstores and dissolved the journal’s editorial board, but that board and the head of the school, as well as an art critic who wrote an accompanying essay and the artist, still face a potential lawsuit on charges of blasphemy, the Associated Press reports.
Posted inOpinion
When Art as a Subversive Act Is too Subversive
LONDON — Cultural relativism is a problematic thing. If you don’t agree, ask Caveh Zahedi, whose new film, The Sheikh and I, is set to premiere at Brooklyn’s Factory 25 on December 7 after having been banned on the grounds of blasphemy by the biennial that commissioned it.
Posted inNews
Moscow Court Censors Pussy Riot Videos, Calling Them “Extremist”
A Moscow court has ruled that four videos by punk-art-protest band Pussy Riot are “extremist,” and websites hosting the videos must remove them or pay fines.
Posted inBooks
I Read Banned Books …
Even though Hyperallergic is primarily a blog about art and visual culture, there’s no question that we’re also super nerds who read a lot. So I felt it would be remiss if we didn’t pay at least a short tribute to Banned Books Week, an annual celebration of books and literacy and the freedom for everyone to read whatever the hell he or she wants, which unfortunately is still more of an ideal than a universal practice.
Posted inNews
India Arrests Political Cartoonist for Sedition
Is it just me, or do a lot of governments seem to be cracking down on artists these days? The latest country to join the club is India, where a political cartoonist was recently imprisoned for his satirical drawings lampooning government and elite corruption.
Posted inNews
In Closing Remarks, Pussy Riot Grrrl Delivers Manifesto
Those who’ve been following the news out of Russia know that three members of feminist punk collective Pussy Riot are currently on trial for rushing the altar and playing an anti-Putin song in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The women called their song, which is titled “Virgin Mary, Chase Putin Out” and includes a lot of cursing, a “punk prayer.” Authorities arrested Yekaterina Samutsevich, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova after their February performance and charged them with hooliganism and inciting religious hatred. They then spent months in detention until the trial finally began at the end of July.
Posted inNews
NYPD Can’t Take Criticism, Censors Legal Mural
Proving that art does still have the power to be controversial, and that the New York Police Department pretty much does whatever it wants, the NYPD dispatched two officers on Tuesday to paint over a mural that it didn’t like.
Posted inOpinion
Privacy, Sexuality and Museum Politics at the Jewish Museum
Last month the Jewish Museum removed San Francisco artist Marc Adelman’s controversial photo installation “Stelen (Columns)” (2007–11) from its exhibition Composed: Identity, Politics, Sex. Adelman’s piece, which is part of the Jewish Museum’s collection, consists of 150 profile pictures found on the German gay dating site GayRomeo.com taken at Peter Eisenman’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin.
Posted inArt
When Controversy and Failure Become Art
In the exhibition Canceled: Alternative Manifestations and Productive Failures at the Center for Book Arts, the documents, language and narrative of controversy, censorship and failure become a new form of work to consider.
