Forty chairs sit facing a blank white wall inside Gallery 101. They sit in identical rows waiting.
According to the Catholic League, they’re waiting to see an assault on Christianity.
For others, the chairs wait to see a visual interpretation of life, death and suffering. The projector is warmed up. The lights are dimmed. The show begins.
On Jan. 8, Bank Street Gallery 101 screened David Wojnarowicz’s silent film A Fire in my Belly, which was controversially censored by the Smithsonian Institute in the U.S. late last year. After protests from religious groups and Republican party members, the Smithsonian pulled the film from an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. The protesters found the film anti-religious and were especially upset over a clip showing ants crawling over a crucifix. Critics argue the league’s disapproval is rooted in homophobia since the artist was openly gay.
With its recent screening, Gallery 101 is standing in solidarity with galleries across North America against the censorship of same-sex themed art. It’s part of an ongoing battle to stop art censors from determining what is socially acceptable, says Gallery 101 director Leanne L’Hirondelle.
While art censorship isn’t new, the censorship of AIDS and same-sex themed art is especially problematic, says Glenn Crawford, a staff member at Gallery 101 and the chairman of The Village, a non-profit organization working to create a gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans-friendly village in Ottawa’s downtown.
“The LGBT people, that segment of society, has been silenced or hidden for years and in various cultures,” he says. “There was certainly irony when one part of that film was taken out and effectively silenced.”
Since the film’s removal from the Washington show, museums and art groups around the world have pulled support from Smithsonian institutes. Both the Andy Warhol Foundation and the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, which have given hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past, announced that they will cease funding.
“We showed it because we thought an artist’s voice shouldn’t be silenced,” says L’Hirondelle.
The gallery thought it was important to bring the film to Centretown so people could see it for themselves and not be blinded by the controversy, says Crawford.
“Ultimately censorship stops people from making up their own minds,” says Crawford. “Art gives a visual interpretation of themes and ideas. To silence ideas is very dangerous.”
The Smithsonian exhibition in question, Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture, explores American art by and about homosexuals.
One of the artists featured in the exhibition is renowned Canadian (and Order of Canada recipient) AA Bronson. In protest against the censorship, he’s asking that the National Portrait Gallery to remove his large photograph, titled Felix, June 5, 1994. It’s currently on loan in Washington from the National Gallery of Canada.
Bronson says the censorship is rooted in homophobia.
He says Wojnarowicz’s depiction of suffering is no different than other interpretations; it’s just linked to AIDS and homosexuality. A Fire in my Belly was made in response to the death of Wojnarowicz’s partner, artist Peter Hujar in 1987. Wojnarowicz died in 1992 of AIDS-related complications.
Bronson is also waging a legal battle against the National Gallery of Canada’s CEO Marc Mayer over ownership of the ‘Felix’ photograph. For now, the artwork still hangs in Washington.