Visual Art Feb 10, 2011 at 3:33 pm

Ab-so-fruit-ly: Dan Savage on the Censored Smithsonian Show

Jen Graves
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Comments

1
Didn't Fran Lebowitz comment on that in her recent documentary, about the absolute creative stars of a whole generation missing today? I remember seeing a Mapplethorpe show in Boston, and they wouldn't let my kids in, although I could take them to the multiplex to see death and dismemberment on the big screen. We are so fucked up culturally. Fear no art.
Canuck on February 10, 2011 at 3:44 PM Report this
2
I hear Mubarak is running for the nom.

Any truth to that rumor?
Will in Seattle on February 10, 2011 at 4:04 PM Report this
3
I lived the AIDS epidemic in the Castro. Art can show you pain but until you've lived it, the crushed lives and broken hearts, the feeling of suddenly being at war with an unseen enemy, you never really know it. It would be too painful for me, even in snip-its. But I'm also glad someone is doing art for others to feel what went on.
Vince on February 10, 2011 at 4:27 PM Report this
4
Long time reader of Slog, but never posted. I have to say though, this post compelled me to post- not because of the pulled video (though the fact that it was removed makes me furious), but because of Bronson's photo. I've never seen it, and when I looked at the picture close up, it absolutely wrecked me. I'm a college aged gay boy, so I have no firsthand knowledge of how AIDS affected the gay community, other than things I've read. But that photo absolutely hit me like a ton of bricks- it made me feel sick and want to cry at the same time. I've never seen anything like that, and it just had an enormous impact on me. I'm not totally sure what I wanted to say here, but that picture moved me so much that I had to say something.

And fuck the Smithsonian for censoring the exhibit.
on February 10, 2011 at 4:27 PM Report this
5
@4 Cool comment, Will from PA. You should register so everyone can see it. And I agree, the sadness it represents is overwhelming.
Canuck on February 10, 2011 at 4:42 PM Report this
6
That David-buried-face photo has always meant so much to me.

Will from PA @5, thanks for that (and thanks for pointing to it, Canuck).

Will in Seattle, now more than ever, shut the fuck up.
gloomy gus on February 10, 2011 at 5:02 PM Report this
7
Well, Dan led with the CPAC comment.

The Smithsonian has a tough time. They have to try to skirt the edge of appealing to all groups of people, at the same time that they get way too much oversight by all the DC power elites with their own agendas.

I don't envy them that.

They'll never be what you want, due to the nature of that relationship, but I think they try to work within those constraints and expose people to things they otherwise wouldn't ever see. It's not a perfect system by far, but it's better than nothing.
Will in Seattle on February 10, 2011 at 5:36 PM Report this
8
'unseen'?

try a mirror.....
on February 11, 2011 at 10:29 AM Report this

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