Proudly unAustralian: Azlan Mclennan to re-erect work.

Anonymous

Under the Howard government our civil liberties are slowly being eroded, and in the art world no one has felt this more than local artist and activist Azlan McLennan.

Mclennan's work became better known in August 2004 when one of his pieces, called Fifty-Six was censored by Melbourne City Council. Since then four more of McLennan's art works have been censored, their content proving far too provocative for Australia's new form of democracy."
The most recent has been his work titled Proudly unAustralian, which featured a burnt Australian flag on display outside Trocadero gallery in Footscray in January this year.

Police illegally removed the artwork only a few days after it had been erected. However, in co-operation with Trocadero gallery Mclennan intends to re-erect the artwork despite the police's refusal to drop the threat of laying charges against him.

Mclennan " the bottom line is I haven't broken the law and I intend to exercise my democratic right to dissent and if people don't like that I would accuse them of being "unAustralian." In the current climate it is pertinent that the public does not give up basic laws of freedom of expression, in a climate where art is another target on Howard's 'war on everything.'

Proudly unAustralian will be exhibited at the Trocadero Arts Space on Tuesday the 28th February. In conjunction with the exhibition Resistance and Trocadero Arts Space has initiated a public meeting to gather the community against censorship and the ongoing intimation of artists and the community through the new anti-terrorist and sedition laws.


The meeting will be held Tues February 28, 6.30pm at the Trocadero Arts Space Level 1, 119 Hopkins St, Footscray.

Speakers will include local prominent civil rights lawyer Rob Stary, Azlan McLennan and Tamara Winikoff, director of the National Association of Visual Arts (NAVA).

For more information contact the below
The Resistance Centre 9639 8622
Brianna Pike 0439 694 505
Trocadero Arts Space trocadero@myartsmail.com

Anonymous

Hi all.

The good people at Resistance have been carrying on
the fight in regards to my recent censorship bout with
the Footscray police. Signing the pettition (see
attached) does not automatically make you a communist,
a terrorist, a Stalinist, an anti-Semite or give you a
one-way-ticket to Guantanamo Bay. It is merely an act
of solidarity for those opposed to state-intervention.
Please forward onto your contacts.

Comradely,
Azlan

Anonymous

Support freedom of artistic expression! Oppose state censorship! -
sign online petittion

Defend Azlan McLennan!

The Howard government's anti-terrorism legislation—backed by all state
governments— represents a serious threat to civil liberties and
freedom of artistic expression. The January 20 confiscation by
Footscray police of Azlan McLennan's artwork "Proudly unAustralian"
(above), a burned Australian flag exhibited at the local gallery
Trocadero Art Space, is the most recent attempt to curb dissent.
This is the fifth time McLennan has been censored over the past 18
months and the police's threats to possibly charge the artist sets a
new precedent in the recent bouts of intimidation and censorship of
cultural expression.

Resistance organiser Brianna Pike stated, "In the coming period we are
going to need to fight to maintain our basic right to dissent, to
protest and to condemn our government's actions. Although the artwork
has since been returned to McLennan, the Footscray Police has not said
that they won't press charges."

Resistance in conjunction with Trocadero Arts Space has initiated a
public meeting to gather the community against censorship and the
ongoing intimation of artists and the community through the new
anti-terrorist and sedition laws. The meeting will be held Tues
February 28, 6.30pm at the Trocadero Arts Space Level 1, 119 Hopkins
St, Footscray.

Speakers will include local prominent civil rights lawyer Rob Stary,
Azlan McLennan and Tamara Winikoff, director of the National
Association of Visual Arts (NAVA).

To view the 'Support freedom of artistic expression! Oppose state
censorship! Defend Azlan McLennan!' online petition go to
http://www.gopetition.com/region/12/8052.html

For more information contact the below
The Resistance Centre 9639 8622
Brianna Pike 0439 694 505
Trocadero Arts Space trocadero@myartsmail.com

Anonymous

I wonder why Azlan McLennan is completly unable to do any art depicting Islam and all the very PC around it, as it is a so called "Religion of Peace and Love" ?
I wonder why Azlan McLennan is blind to the stoning of women and the assination of gays in Islamic countries ?

Tell me frankly did any buddhist burnt any mosque when the Talibans destroyed the Buddahs ?

Tell me frankly did any jew blew himself up in any church in Germany, 40 years after the nazism ?

Does Azlan McLennan cares about the 2 churches burnt after the Cronulla's Riots ?

And last but not least, how can Azlan McLennan dare asking for money to a goverment, a civilisation he hates ? Maybe he is just like the new "government" in Palestine, the Hamas, ready to beg for their annual 1 billion dollars from Israel, the US and the EU, and ready to stab in the back Western civilisation at the same time.

Maybe Azlan McLennan has transform art into "takia", or the countrary ?

All of that with the blessing from the Society of Spectacle, self-hatred, shame and guilt driven of our dear artistic inteligentsia....so called democrats...

Anonymous

OK for Freedom of Artistic Expression then, but only if Azlan McLennan paints the Muslim prophet Mohamed ....

Anonymous

It's a little strange that people who are offended by Azlan's work want him to do things they would not support - blasphemy, suicide bombings etc. He is an artist who poses questions about our senseless acceptance of political and economic normality in the context of Australian society.
A simple article on the front page of the Age newspaper today illustrated for me the insanity of our (the Australian Governments) view of normality, war, capitalism and citizenry.
60% of Australian adults own shares on the stock exchange. This is driven by privatisation of governement owned assests and the need to self insure through superannuation funds. The stock market has risen to new hieght in the last three years. "Almost three years to the day since the market began its climb, driven by the invasion of Saddam Hussein's Iraq..."
Now, If I was to say that our standard of living is dependent on Australia supporting the unjustified war on Iraq I would be accused of being a conspiracy theorist. The shear fact is that war is good for economy but more importantly, war is essential. The three largest industries in the world are arms, petrol and drugs. The seven biggest arms dealers are the seven members of the UN security Council.
With these simple hyprocracies, I have no problem in seeing John Howard next to Hamas leaders and the question asked who is the terrorist, or the burning of the Australian flag exhibited as a work of art to draw our attention to confused and frightened state of our sense of national identity.
Someone has to be asking these questions and it certainly isn't the politicians or the media.
The arts and the some of the churches in Australia are the only one's interested in the compelling issues of our time.
Keep at it Azlan!

Anonymous

First thing :

STOP reading the AGE, one of the worst piece of journalism, and a shame to democracy.

Second thing :

If you think that Saddam and the Hamas are equal to the Australian governement, why don't you move out of this democratic country, and immigrate to the West Bank ???
Why don't you go and live in Pakistan or any nice PEACEFULL and TOLERANT country where women are oftenly stoned or burnet with acid and gays are sodomised with bottles before they are beaten to death with kicks in the stomach ?

Third thing :

If you have any problem with your superannuation, i can still give you my account number.

Anonymous

Hi Kim,

Anthony here.
If anyone thinks that Australia is as good as it gets then I'd have to say I disagree.

We went to war (Iraq this time, not Vietnam) for no justifiable reason. There was no clear and imminent threat to Australia or our allies from Iraq. Rather than analysing the data, using the mechanism of UN inspectors, who disagreed with the unilateral decision of the US of A (later acquiescent coalition of the willing) and taking time to discover whether or not there was credibility to the now discredited evidence (even by the military leader/dove of peace Colin Powell use as propagandist and now defunct hope). There were no weapons of mass destruction. There was no connection with Al Qaeda. We went to war and now have the blood of 10's of 1000's of Iraqi civilians on our hands not Saddam's. The argument used against this line of reasoning is the rescue of 10's of thousand of Iraqi's lives from the clutches of a dictator who the U.S of A supported directly and played a double hand in the one million (that is 1,000,000) lives lost in the Iran Iraq war amidst the other great tragedy of US imperialism of the 20th Century in Latin America. Directly and proven the connection between drugs, the war in Iraq and the backing of the Contra against Nicaragua in contravention of the US Congress. By the way, that happened to be George Bush Seniors job as head of the CIA. The most ridiculous element of this is that as soon as I mention the CIA I feel a certain sound of "Conspiracy Theorist". However, I am consoled by the idea of a democratic Oligarchy, one replete with Heads of Secret intelligence services as played out by the illustrious history of the Bush Family and the second world war (woops wrong side), in the CIA and later the Whitehouse and the fact the idiot son is now in power of the most singularly powerful nation in the world (a unipolar power).

Now, through our actions (that is an independent, care free Australia (John Petty famously said careless)), there is an insurgence of Al Qaeda in Iraq and the possibility of total collapse including the physical destruction of the cradle of civiliation. Iran, who has signed the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty is developing nuclear weapons and faces sanctions and possibly military attacks while we discuss selling uranium to India, who has not signed the NNPT is developing nuclear weapons following the lead of the USA who see no contradiction in any business transactoin and is, in the fact, the only nation to have actually used nuclear weapons, not once but twice, on a civilian population (there is more to this discussion) while arguing for other nations to not develop nuclear weapons unless they already have them and there is nothing we can do about it in the first instance (North Korea), or actually support them directly with financial and military aid (Pakistan) in the so called war against terror. Remember, Pakistan backed the Mujahadin and while they were against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan that was O.K. Woops again.

Amidst this I ask you Kim, is there a better role for Australia to play in world politics? The national shame is that we are the only so called developed nation to lock up children and adults seeking refuge in our land in desert compounds and drive them to psychosis. Compare this to the Vietnamese boat people of the 1970's who, one could argue, were escaping a regime the same coalition of the willing opposed in uncanny similar and parallel circumstances including Liberal Party Coalition Government. How many elections in Australia have firstly been won on fear and secondly on the scapegoat of the other? Not even during the cold war were such narrow minded, economically and selfishly based decisions taken. This is our national shame - including the further decimation of indigenous culture (the life expectancy of indigenous Australians is still 20 years less than non indigenous, imprisonment rates far outstrip the % of the population, simple and preventable diseases still maim and kill indigenous people).

I agree with you Kim that there are aspects of our society that are worthwhile. I think Azlan is actually testing them. Can we stand self-analysis? I don't think we do enough of it. Most lives in Australia are consumed by consumption. Why is it that depression and suicide are accepted as modern diseases? Don't you think there just might be something wrong with our society when the number one killer of young people (above that other great modern invention the car) is that they feel there is no place in it for them? Now I'm not saying that youth suicide is a result of going war on Iraq for no justifiable reason. I am saying that we need to ask ourselves, is this how we imagine our future - a never ending war on terror, democracy by might is right, productivity to destroy the planet, no place for the yong or hte old unless they conform?

I'll leave this with another open question. How many people advocated for the invasion of Timor L'este? The death toll by the illegally occupying force (against numerous UN resolution which Australia distinguished itself by opposing) was estimated at 200,000. Indonesia controlled the lucrative oil fields with which Australia entered development deals. What is it that inspires our nation to go to war with a sovereign nation perpetuating crimes against humanity (Iraq) and not an occupied one perpetuating the same crimes so close to home? In fact, what is it that took 25 years (a whole generation) to reach a negotiate return of self-determination? (There is more to this as well). Apartheid South Africa - name one nation that wanted to end a half a century of a crime against humanity through military action. The anti apartheid movement was one of the few success stories of the 20th Century of war of which I can proudly say I was a part. I had hoped that it provided a lesson. Mandela was a terrorist by our own definition. Now he is the symbol of humanity and peace.

If there is no clear answer to the complex geo political situation then I would argue the same for Iraq. Even more so. We are culpable, each and every Australian, in not attempting other avenues besides war to deliver the same rights we think are human rights.

These are the reason's I support Azlan's intention to bring politics to the centre stage of our society.

Interested in your thoughts.

Anonymous

I was just wondering where everyone here gets off, bad-mouthing an artist because of his opinion on one issue. If he had have wanted to show the suffering of the Churches or the stoning of women he would have done something, so why don't you if you're not happy about it, i mean, it's not like he personaly went "i think i will deliberately ignore other isues and do this one that will clearly make some closed-minded people angry.

thanx