There is only one worthwhile test of social cohesion. We may have just failed it
And yet anxiety over possible divisiveness seems to have been the guiding emotional principle applied by the board of Creative Australia, the government's main arts body, when it abruptly sacked Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi and his curator Michael Dagostino as Australia's representatives at the prestigious Venice Biennale next year.
The board, which this week reinstated the duo in a spectacular backflip, originally said it acted to avoid the erosion of public support for Australia's artistic community that might ensue from a 'prolonged and divisive debate'.
It is assumed that a prolonged and divisive debate about an artwork is a bad thing, but it doesn't have to be.
To be fair, the board's anxieties were well-founded.
Loading
It was February 2025 and a caravan full of explosives had been discovered in north-west Sydney. This incident was quickly labelled an anti-Jewish terror plot but was later revealed to be a 'criminal con job'. The Peter Dutton-led Coalition was hammering the Albanese government (then behind in the polls) for being soft on antisemitism. Horrific pictures of burnt and maimed Gazan children aired on television nightly. Jewish-Australians were encountering antisemitism in their day-to-day lives. Pro-Palestine and pro-Israel forces were demonstrating on the streets and clashing in arts organisations.
Sabsabi, stridently pro-Palestine Lebanese-Australian, had made clear his view on Israel when he decided to boycott the 2022 Sydney Festival because it took $20,000 in funding from the Israeli Embassy. His boycott was well before the horror of the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas on innocent Israelis, a day of rape, torture, kidnapping and slaughter from which more and more horror has unspooled.
Sabsabi's views on Israel were known when he was chosen, as was his body of work, which includes a video and sound installation called 'YOU', owned by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. 'YOU' features multiple versions of an image of Hassan Nasrallah, former head of Hezbollah.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Canberra Times
34 minutes ago
- Canberra Times
Gunfire hits ship off Yemen: UK maritime agency
The Houthi rebels have been launching missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group's leadership has described as an effort to end Israel's offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Perth Now
an hour ago
- Perth Now
Gunfire hits ship off Yemen: UK maritime agency
A ship has come under attack in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen by armed men firing guns and launching rocket-propelled grenades, a group overseen by the UK military says. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which comes as tensions remain high in the Middle East over the Israel-Hamas war and after the Iran-Israel air war and air strikes by the United States targeting Iranian nuclear sites. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said that an armed security team on the ship had returned fire and that the "situation is ongoing". It described the attack as happening 100km southwest of Hodeida, Yemen, which is held by the country's Houthi rebels. "Authorities are investigating," it said. Ambrey, a maritime security firm, issued a warning saying that a merchant ship had been "attacked by eight skiffs while transiting northbound in the Red Sea". It said it believed the attack was ongoing. The US navy's Middle East-based 5th Fleet referred questions to the military's Central Command, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Houthi rebels have been launching missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group's leadership has described as an effort to end Israel's offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The group's al-Masirah satellite news channel acknowledged the attack occurred but offered no other comment on it as it aired a speech by its secretive leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi. Between November 2023 and January 2025, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors. That has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically has $US1 trillion ($A1.5 trillion) worth of goods move through it annually. The Houthi rebels paused attacks in a self-imposed ceasefire until the US launched a broad assault against the rebels in mid-March. That ended weeks later and the Houthis have not attacked a vessel although they have continued occasional missile attacks targeting Israel. On Sunday, the group claimed launching a missile at Israel which the Israeli military said it intercepted. Pirates from Somalia also have operated in the region although typically they have sought to capture vessels either to rob or ransom their crews.
Sky News AU
2 hours ago
- Sky News AU
‘Not the Australian way': Victoria's ‘extremely divisive' Voice to Parliament discussed
Former Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger discusses the Victorian government's Voice to Parliament. 'This is going to be extremely divisive,' Mr Kroger told Sky News host Paul Murray. 'We've just been through this, haven't we? 'This is not the Australian way; this is what Australians overwhelmingly rejected.'
