By Sheila Pratt
Two Edmonton artists are shocked that part of their internationally renowned work, The Gun Sculpture, was subject to censorship at a United Nations exhibition in Vienna this summer after pressure from the Chinese delegation.
The 4.5-tonne sculpture, welded together from deactivated guns, landmines and ammunition, has been shown in many countries, including at UN headquarters in New York in 2001, and has never run into problems, said artist Sandra Bromley, who built the sculpture with Wallis Kendal.
Besides the weapons, the exhibit includes panels with photographs of more than 100 victims of violence from dozens of countries, including two images of Tibetan nuns.
All the photographs were removed in an act of "blunt censorship," said Bromley.
That happened after the Chinese objected to exhibit organizers and other UN departments at the UN's Vienna International Centre. China invaded Tibet in 1950, and has suppressed several uprisings in the Himalayan country.
The two parts of the exhibit must be displayed together to maintain the integrity of the art, said Bromley, noting that the 114 photos have been displayed at every stop. Text with each image is displayed separately.
"We were absolutely shocked," said Bromley. "This was done without any consultation or permission."
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Stumble It!
Ed Deak.
We, and the rest of the Western capitalist countries, have to suck up to China so they bring back the money we pay them and buy up our resources with it as "wealth creating foreign investors". Otherwise known as colonizers, but that ain't no longer a fashionable expression.
Ed Deak.
Of course, that's what we in BC's lowermainland do with the Rest Of BC. It's almost like the way defeated kings bled their kingdoms dry to pay tribute to the conquerers. That way the "kings" stay in power locally, funneling the wealth away to the Emperor of the moment.