From Eve to the Kardashians, the body has always garnered reaction but Australian laws leave us with a grey area when presenting the public body. Understanding that landscape of risk and ethics is explored in a new exhibition.
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Visual Arts
Detail of Sarah Lucas’s huge digital image ‘Untitled’, 2012, hangs ceiling to floor in Artspace’s exhibition ‘The Public Body’; courtesy the artist and Sadie Coles HQ, London
From Napoleon striking the bare bottom of a Courbet nude with his riding crop to suffragette Mary Richardson slashing Velazquez’s Rokeby Venus, the public has always reacted strongly to the nude and nakedness.
Gina Fairley is ArtsHub's Senior Contributor, after 12 years in the role as National Visual Arts Editor. She has worked for extended periods in America and Southeast Asia, as gallerist, arts administrator and regional contributing editor for a number of magazines, including Hong Kong based Asian Art News and World Sculpture News. She is an Art Tour leader for the AGNSW Members, and lectures regularly on the state of the arts. She is based in Mittagong, regional NSW.
Instagram: fairleygina
