Eleanor Heartney on Tour 2006

Our self-congratulatory political rhetoric tells us that we are free, tolerant, open and democratic, nation and that it is or duty to spread those values around the world. The things we hold sacrosanct and the things we prohibit suggest that the picture is not so simple.

Why does our popular culture glorify gore and death, while photo-journalists and artists draw censure when they depict real dead bodies? Why are artists who deal with religious themes in any but the most conventional manner branded as blasphemers, apostates and nihilists even when they are expressing a personal sense of belief and spirituality? Why do we flock to shows like Sex in the City and Desperate Housewives while applying even more restrictive definitions of decency to publicly funded airwaves and museums?

A society's taboos reveal what it fears while its controversies reveal where lines have been drawn in the sand. This lecture will examine the work of artists like Sally Mann, Joel Peter Witkin, Andres Serrano, Chris Ofili, Kara Walker, Ghada Amer and Masami Teraoka who push the limits of the acceptable. Their work, and the varied reactions to it, help create a map of what we value as a culture and what most deeply troubles us. At a time when dissent is becoming an increasingly endangered species, these artists bring our underlying and often unacknowledged assumptions into focus. In the process, they help clear the way for the possibility of a genuine political debate.