Morality and Art

Wendy Rosenfield of The Mirror up to Nature has a great post up about morality and theatre. 

While she takes particular issue of man vs crustacean the article also talks about right/wrong vis a vis pedophilia. That particular post is here.

It feels a bit like in Toronto we are in the midst of talking about pedophilia what with productions of Absit Omen’s My Fellow Creatures, CanStage’s Doubt and Studio 180’s Blackbird. A veritable inundation of the discussion in fact.

However one of the morality issues that has long been part of my internal discussion has been about Eric Fischl’s Tumbling Woman. This piece was created after 9/11, installed and then the controversy had it removed. 

Public art vs morality or taste. It is always a continuing debate but for me Fischl’s work is one of the most compelling, disturbing and powerful images I have ever viscerally felt. The thought of it not having a place in our public spaces is a profoundly depressing one.