PENAL CONSEQUENCES FOR CHOOSING SELF EXPRESSION..,

.., is nothing new, but it still comes as a bit of a surprise when it happens on your door-step and touches something close to your own values.


I was shocked the other day for instance to learn about the case of Dorota Nieznalska. Back in 2003 she became the first artist in Poland to be convicted in a court of law because of her work. Exhibited in Gdansk at the now defunct Wyspa Gallery, her work 'Pasja' (Passion/Lust) caused an outrage, the result of which landed her in court and a sentence ultimately which forbade her from leaving the country and giving her six months of hard-labour.


Old news it may well be (and I must find out what became of Dorota Nieznalska) but it remains a fairly recent reminder to us all that freedom of expression and ‘taste’ in the arts is at best a subjective thing. Unfortunately, for most who hold the reins, ‘bad’ and ‘offensive’ forms of expression gives an opportunity to flex muscles and win popular support from a majority who feel anything to question their cultural values to be nothing but a personal attack (as suggested half way down the page here by my original source 'Marysia’ on the Saatchi Forum).