Censor This aims to callout the continual misrepresentation of marginalised and oppressed bodies, identities, and people, particularly in mainstream media. It is here to callout the bigotry that lives in this misrepresentation, but also in the audiences and consumers of media.
Censor This speaks to the audience/subject relationship in photography, and acknowledges how media and images represent and further oppress certain communities of people. The connotation of pixelated ‘censor bars’ over the subject’s eyes aims to be political, and refers to the censorship and mistreatment of marginalized bodies: queer people, people of colour, differently abled people, indigenous people, trans folk, and non-normative identities. These are the voices we rarely hear without bias, and the identities we misrepresent constantly.
On one hand, this is a demeaning move, removing the gaze from a subject takes away their ability to challenge their audience. As the name suggests though, Censor This is somewhat of a piss-take, and the uniformity, repetition, and style of the portraits, starts to build an air of uncertainty in the viewer, and plays with the power dynamic between the audience and the subject.
The portraits, lined on all three walls, develop a uniformity and syntax that creates an uneasy atmosphere in the room. This is to give the illusion that the audience is being watched, a sense of surveillance, and in turn acts to force the audience into censoring themselves.
This work was first shown as a part of Verge Festival in the University of Sydney Graffiti Tunnel in 2017. I curated a show called Queer Attack in the tunnel and featuring all queer artists, including muralist Samuel Leighton-Dore. During this show the university painted over Sam’s mural of a gay orgy, quite literally censoring the work and the message of the tunnel. Censor This in its current iteration, with its ‘rough’ aesthetic and connotation of street paste-ups, is a response to its original form, and a continued narrative of censorship.
My practice is deeply concerned by the people I photograph, and part of my process involves interviewing my subjects. Their voices are here to speak their own experiences, not for me to speak on their behalf. Included in the space are transcripts of these interviews.
Censor This aims to callout the continual misrepresentation of marginalised and oppressed bodies, identities, and people, particularly in mainstream media. It is here to callout the bigotry that lives in this misrepresentation, but also in the audiences and consumers of media.
Censor This speaks to the audience/subject relationship in photography, and acknowledges how media and images represent and further oppress certain communities of people. The connotation of pixelated ‘censor bars’ over the subject’s eyes aims to be political, and refers to the censorship and mistreatment of marginalized bodies: queer people, people of colour, differently abled people, indigenous people, trans folk, and non-normative identities. These are the voices we rarely hear without bias, and the identities we misrepresent constantly.
On one hand, this is a demeaning move, removing the gaze from a subject takes away their ability to challenge their audience. As the name suggests though, Censor This is somewhat of a piss-take, and the uniformity, repetition, and style of the portraits, starts to build an air of uncertainty in the viewer, and plays with the power dynamic between the audience and the subject.
The portraits, lined on all three walls, develop a uniformity and syntax that creates an uneasy atmosphere in the room. This is to give the illusion that the audience is being watched, a sense of surveillance, and in turn acts to force the audience into censoring themselves.
This work was first shown as a part of Verge Festival in the University of Sydney Graffiti Tunnel in 2017. I curated a show called Queer Attack in the tunnel and featuring all queer artists, including muralist Samuel Leighton-Dore. During this show the university painted over Sam’s mural of a gay orgy, quite literally censoring the work and the message of the tunnel. Censor This in its current iteration, with its ‘rough’ aesthetic and connotation of street paste-ups, is a response to its original form, and a continued narrative of censorship.
My practice is deeply concerned by the people I photograph, and part of my process involves interviewing my subjects. Their voices are here to speak their own experiences, not for me to speak on their behalf. Included in the space are transcripts of these interviews.
Censor This aims to callout the continual misrepresentation of marginalised and oppressed bodies, identities, and people, particularly in mainstream media. It is here to callout the bigotry that lives in this misrepresentation, but also in the audiences and consumers of media.
