 (the direct or sinuate threat of
censorship)
Intimidation is the most insidious and far reaching tool of
censorship implementation, it is impossible to calculate how far
it penetrates. In effect , the government has only to uphold a
few examples and fear of legal proceedings, wasted money, time,
and effort cause most artists and art distributors to censor
themselves. Art writer Kim Sawchuck expressed her concern about
this tool in her review of "Dislocating Comfort: A Panel
Discussion on Controversial Art": [Controversial
artist] Diana Thorneycroft mentioned her concerns that support
for Manitoba Artists for Women's Art (MAWA) might be jeopardized
because of their endorsement of the art that explores sexuality
while curators admitted to me, in private, that they have
refrained from exhibiting individual works in shows because of
their concerns about public opinion and its implications for the
future of their funding.*
The following are a few illuminating examples of intimidation at
work. In fact, the number of them is literally countless:
- Homogenius, an annual art magazine made up entirely of images by gay and lesbian artists in Toronto, had to find another printer for their third issue (1993) because the printing company they had been using refused to print some of the images for fear of legal ramifications. The magazine was eventually published and there were no problems.
- When Madonna's 1991 World Tour came to Toronto she was warned
by Project "P" officers before her opening show that she and her
dancers would be arrested if she did her "masturbation" scene.
She ignored the warning and was not arrested.
 In September 1993,
Toronto's Koffler Gallery cancelled and exhibition by Robert
Wyndrum because the word "FAG" appeared in one of his paintings.
In a letter sent to Wyndrum, Associate Curator John Massier wrote
that the criteria for the selection of work to be shown in the
publicly funded gallery are said to be "personal, political,
emotional and subtle." The curator goes on to say, "Given your
position as a gay, male artist, you should almost certainly have
misgivings about exhibiting within such circumstances."*
CUIT (U of T campus
radio) dropped its entire The Scrambler show when a guest D.J.
Bruce La Bruce of the J.D.s played a Yeastie Girlz Ovary Action
single that included "foul" language. When the regular host
Caroline A. returned she quit job over the issue:
I
quit CIUT after all the flack when the J.D.s radio gang got
kicked off. I'm not going to take that! The over-paid station
manager and program director both set up lots of little meetings
to try to get me to capitulate but I was disgusted and told them
where to stick that fascist shit. I want to go back and do the
exact same thing. I'm like a cockroach: hard to kill.*
The Crux of the Gist
of the Biscuit by Nadia Sistonen, part of an episode of YYZ
TV (a public access show produced by the YYZ gallery in Toronto),
was pulled from broadcast by Maclean-Hunter Cable because some of
the material was thought to be offensive.
Bolo Bolo by
Gita Saxena and Ian Rashid is a section of the Toronto Living
With AIDS project. It was pulled from broadcast by Roger's Cable
in April 1991.
The Sonic Youth Video,
Death Valley 69, was banned from broadcast by Much Music,
probably because of its blatantly homo-positive content.
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