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Up close and personal: body ethics and risk

From Eve to the Kardashians, the body has always garnered reaction but Australian laws leave us with a grey area when presenting the public body. Understanding that landscape of risk and ethics is explored in a new exhibition.

2 Sep 2016 12:00

Gina Fairley

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Visual Arts

Detail of Sarah Lucas’s huge digital image ‘Untitled’, 2012, hangs ceiling to floor in Artspace’s exhibition ‘The Public Body’; courtesy the artist and Sadie Coles HQ, London

From Napoleon striking the bare bottom of a Courbet nude with his riding crop to suffragette Mary Richardson slashing Velazquez’s Rokeby Venus, the public has always reacted strongly to the nude and nakedness.

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Gina Fairley

Gina Fairley is ArtsHub's National Visual Arts Editor. For a decade she worked as a freelance writer and curator across Southeast Asia and was previously the Regional Contributing Editor for Hong Kong based magazines Asian Art News and World Sculpture News. Prior to writing she worked as an arts manager in America and Australia for 14 years, including the regional gallery, biennale and commercial sectors. She is based in Mittagong, regional NSW. Twitter: @ginafairley Instagram: fairleygina