Naked Cowen Paintings – Cowen made an arse of it.
April 1st, 2009 by Frank
As Eoin already pointed out here on BifSniff some bloke painted Cowen in the nude and then sneaked into some galleries and hung them up. In one gallery the lasted twenty minutes before the painting was taken down. And then it was reported in the news.
And then everyone forgot about it.
Oh, no wait. Hang on….
Then RTE apologised for running the news story. And then the Gardai ran around the country saying they’d get search warrants and track down the culprits saying that they offended decency, incited hatred and engaged in criminal damage in the act of nailing the portrait to the gallery walls. And at some point the whole thing went international.
Accusations and denials abound.
The whole thing is an absurdist comedy. It makes no sense. I can’t make head or tail of it. I’ve not posted about it because the whole thing confuses and depresses me. It’s a muddy and weird affair.
However, the fact that RTE apologised and that the Gardai went off on a manhunt over an unoriginal but amusing prank is insane and quite possibly bodes ill for the future of freedom of speech and for artistic pranksters.
The whole thing should have been either ignored or laughed off by those in power, instead the powers that be managed to turn a brief minor incident into a long running international one.
Fústar is organising a protest postcard exhibition of naked pics of Cowen and Allan Cavanagh (of Caricatures Ireland) bullied me into taking part (update – in a good way, I’m delighted he did, I really enjoyed taking time to do some drawing). I explained to Allan that I hadn’t got involved yet, partly because I didn’t know what to make of the whole thing. But I promised to think about it and see if I could come up with something.
After thinking about it, I decided I wasn’t comfortable with doing a naked Biffo. Not only because I didn’t relish the idea of drawing him naked, but also because I just wouldn’t like it is loads of people were drawing naked postcards of me, many of them quite possibly unflattering or derogatory.
On the other hand, those who know me know that I am not adverse to poking fun of myself in self themed cartoons, so a cartoon about the whole affair made sense to me.
Hence my image above which sums up my main thoughts on the whole affair. This is my attempt to show solidarity with the artist, and with the protest generally – I totally understand why the protest is naked Cowen’s but I’m just not personally comfortable with it.
Cowen, and/or his government should have made light of this whole affair and it would have quietly slipped away almost unnoticed. I hope to god they at least realise this now.
There are loads of blog posts on this if you want more info.
Cowen denies demanding an apology
RHA Gallery did not complain to Gardai
Allan Cavanagh on censorship and satire
Damien Mulley calls for protest
Some other coverage of it
The Times (uk) on it
And on and on and on…
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April 1st, 2009 at 1:52 pm
A totally valid reason for deciding not to contribute. Thanks for taking the time to think about it. If you don’t feel comfortable, you don’t feel comfortable. I’ll send you an invite to the opening anyway!
All best,
F
April 1st, 2009 at 1:59 pm
If clothed Cowen’s are allowed I’ll try and get this one to you, I just wasn’t comfortable with the naked bit(s).
April 1st, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Frank. Clothed Cowens are discouraged, but not totally excluded! Send it on. How can I get my address to you? Oh and remember, it HAS to be on a postcard.
This is not (at least for me) about ridiculing Brian Cowen’s physical appearance. That’s deeply dull and tedious. Nevertheless, it was a nude Brian Cowen that started this shit-storm a whirling so a nude Brian Cowen has therefore become our totem to rally around. I’m certainly interested in issues of obscenity, transgression, indecency, censorship and societal attitudes to nudity – but that’s just me. For others the issue may (simply) be more about bad ol’ Irish politics. The whole point (ignored by many who’ve slammed the “blogosphere” as a singular hysterical nerd-entity) is that responses are completely individual.
In that sense your own response fits in nicely.
April 1st, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Absolutely, as I said in the post I totally understand why you went with a nuse postcard exhibition. Just that it’s not for me.
I’m going to explore MoonPig.com for getting card to you – I *think* it’ll print out and send one from a design I upload… I’ll soon find out
Thanks for coming back. My email is frankp @ this domain, nice one!
April 1st, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Excellente. Mailing you address now.
April 1st, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Postcards ordered from MoonPig, I’ll send one on as soon as they arrive
April 1st, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Hmm. Didn’t get an email from you…
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:35 am
That seems to be happening a few people. No idea why. Resending.
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:38 am
Just messaged you on Twitter with it.
April 2nd, 2009 at 1:59 am
Got it! Cool.
April 4th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Great cartoon Frank, just about sums it up. Cool caricature and I agree with your sentiments on the whole nude issue, I admire that you stick to your own principles. You the man:)
April 6th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Thanks Janie