21 February 2007

Kremlinology at the National Portrait Gallery

| johnboy
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No artistic institution has flourished as much under the Howard Government as the National Portrait Gallery. The fogeys of the conservative back bench have little interest in art but when they pay attention to it they tend to prefer “proper pictures” that don’t require any thought to understand. (for all irony that most portraiture requires the outside context of biography to make sense)

So as the only cultural institution beloved of the Government it’s certainly intriguing to read in the Courier Mail that the Portrait Gallery has taken down the picture of Germaine Greer (according to the Wikipedia “widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the 20th century”) and replaced it with a photograph of crocodile hunter Steve Irwin.


[Steve Irwin 2005
by Robin Sellick]

“The portrait gallery said its decision to put in to storage a study of Greer, by Jacqueline Mitelman, in preference to the portrait of Irwin, donated by Melbourne celebrity photographer Robin Sellick, was in response to “strong public demand”.

“I can totally see the irony in the situation,” a gallery spokesman said. “But it was just coincidental. Seriously it was not a politically motivated decision whatsoever.”

Having appreciated the irony perhaps they might have decided not to make the grand gesture?

But no, let’s tear down the nasty feminist and put up the boofy idiot!

UPDATED: Thanks to Simbo for the head’s up, Germaine has responded by questioning Irwin’s masculinity. If only they could both be dead.

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with his right hand Irwin is doing something invisible to the captive animal,

No wonder it’s smiling

Absent Diane9:31 am 21 Feb 07

Yep and the fact that they are using his death to make even more money, is jut plain weird.

Lets face it… everyone sucks.

“I hate that cocksmoker. I laughed my arse off when he got stung by that stingray.. he was sick in the head.”

Good call AD!

I’m sick of hearing about Bindi and Terri bloody Irwin: the whole thing is like an episode of Home and Away!

I want to see the video of him being stung, as I bet the arsehole was trying to do something stupid, like hugging the Ray, when he got stung.

Germaine Greer should be hung – preferably by the neck until dead.

Absent Diane9:03 am 21 Feb 07

it would be interesting to see what the talking elephant would have to say… although we would need someone that can translate korean.

Germaine posing nude with the elephant would be more interesting…

Incidentally, Germaine’s finally got around to penning a response to this in her column in the Guardian linked here.

Apparently the much-used nude pic isn’t the one being taken down (although it is in the collection) – the actual one being taken down has her in a T-shirt. And I’m sure the vengeful mob amongst you will be glad to know that people sharing your sentiments have been throwing things at her house – mostly eggs, the occasional jam donut, plus some instances of corned beef and dead rabbits.

Also, to quote:
It is of course disgraceful that it has taken the Australian national portrait gallery six months to get round to exhibiting any portrait of Steve Irwin. Indeed, if the photographer Robin Sellick had not given them one free of charge in December, there would still be no likeness of this most famous Australian at the gallery. Sellick’s picture was taken at Australia Zoo with a female elephant called Siam; with his right hand Irwin is doing something invisible to the captive animal, who, according to the gallery’s statement, was waiting to make her daily appearance before the crowds as part of the entertainment at Australia Zoo. With a bare 15 minutes for the shoot, Sellick, who usually takes a whole day, could only keep snapping, hoping to get the kind of perversely suggestive image for which he is famous. As Siam became more restless, Sellick besought Irwin to show his vulnerable, caring side, which Irwin did by tilting his head and simpering. His left thumb is hooked rather coyly in a pocket; his lime-green shirt is undone to the fourth button, and pulled open to display his bosom in a manner not altogether manly.

I don’t know whether her “Stevo’s a poofter” claims are going to get her into even more trouble or not…

Astrohoff ?

astrojax’doff ?

and by the by, thumper, no. you may not. i believe ‘astroboy’ is already taken and i would not presume to ask to call you ‘thumped’, or something equally not actually your name.

auntiesocial11:44 am 18 Feb 07

Ummmm……….The portrait is of the Elephant, a well known symbol of our very own Commonwealth Bank.

Steve is just the prop……the Elephant was too big to use a traditional backdrop.

For me, the portrait is an uplifting experience.

ooo yuk…
I’m not listening… lalalalalalalalalalal

I think the irony is that when the gallery gets around to it, Germaine will be well hung again.

I thought it was pretty liberating, actually.

Agrees with Kimba. Just the thought of G Greer naked is making me decidely queasy, let along the sight of the actual picture…

For some reason the gallery won’t accept my portrait of Sheik Hilali.

I’m not a particular fan of public mournings at the best of times – I’m discomforted by the idea that everybody needs to feel sad about a particular person’s death, no matter how they may have felt about them in life.

I also vaguely remember that we used to be a country that celebrated its ratbags – the lone nutters who challenge everyone else’s opinion. And, whatever else Greer is, she’s certainly a ratbag.

As for what her physical attractiveness or otherwise has to do with the quality of her arguements, well, your guess is as good as mine..

agree with simto and astrojax

yours sincerely, Team Stingray

I saw a photo of the nude Greer in the Telegraph this morning over breakfast – it nearly made me throw-up. Greer is a natural contraceptive – everytime you think of her it puts you off sex.

The Howards on the other hand were quite chuffed with Irwin’s “greatest leader ever” accollade for the Short Man and the way he redefined environmentalism as selective conservation and no hard questions about the impacts of consumption.

Because Greer interrupted our collective Waily Waily by saying he was a fool and a fool is a piss poor role model.

“Hey kids, grow up molesting animals and let an exploitative manager put you in a fatal situation beyond your capacity, then watch him go to work on your wife and kids.”

Brilliant.

Absent Diane1:41 pm 16 Feb 07

because greer bitched about irwin after he died saying he deserved it… and yeah he pretty much did.

Of course you are right thumper.. but if you didn’t have me arguing the other point, you wouldn’t be right would you 🙂

Can somebody please explain in laymans terms to me why this is ironic ?

All I can see here is that they took down one picture and put up another, and that there was no link between the twain other than the nationality on the passport they held going through Heathrow.

*** DISCLAIMER ***
My knowledge of Australian history would make even JWH blush. I can however tell you about the treaty of Waitangi, explain why ‘why kick a moo cow’ is a place in New Zealand, and talk at length about regionality of beer and its counter effect on the subculture environment in different parts of New Zealand, and many other interesting facts like Te Papa, Parehaka, and the Taranaki Flying Rangers.

Being Patron of the Portrait Gallery is her only public role.

And don’t think the Janette’s of this world are ever open about what they’re doing. It’s always coincidence and oversight and then you wake up and realise you’ve been stuffed.

It is not at all ironic thumper, it’s a triumph of Janette Howard over us all.

Absent Diane1:31 pm 16 Feb 07

I would listen to someone with intelligence over some dumb idiot any day… the key there is intelligence… and that is the biggest problem with this country we have too many people who have no respect for intellect.

Anyway I am right and everyone else is wrong, as usual. 😛

West_Kambah_4eva1:22 pm 16 Feb 07

Greer is a self centred and egotistical self-loather who never wrote a piece of work that wasn’t completely wrapped up in her own little head. Her feminist diatribes, while popular at the time, have been shown to be non-theoretical, subjective, meandering and pointless polemic. After she rooted about every intellectual in Melbourne and Sydney, she moved to Cambridge to root just about every academic there, too. Of course, half of these roots were because she was a saucy minx who loved the cock, the other half (where she didn’t orgasm) were male oppression. She lived off the fact that in her twenties she was passably attractive and could string more than two words together and hence felt she was entitled to tell everyone else what to do and how to think. Now, shes older and less attractive and boy if she is ever bitter as hell. She hates Australia because it couldn’t offer her the old European sophistication and culture she craved, ironically the sophistication and culture that was firmly rooted (pun intended) in the fact that old white men ran everything and had done so for nigh on 2000 years.

In summary: Germaine Greer has a smelly pootie tang.

“Johnboy- please feel free to detail your expertise and knowledge in animal education and conservation. We can compare this ‘boofy idiot’with your obviously superior intellect.

How about I didn’t get killed by a stingray?

Works for me.

I think the sad thing is the assumption by a great many of you that there’s only one spot on the wall and we have to choose Greer or Irwin.

They should have room for both and making it either/or is a very nasty symbology. I don’t like Germaine or agree with much of what she says, but I still think this reeks of payback via our national institutions.

Just continuing the tone this article started with, hey Thumper? 😉

Astro: “National” implies for all of the nation, bogans included.
Different people get their messages different ways. I understand some people even watch Today Tonight and take it seriously…

thumper wrote: “In simple terms, he brought greenie (almost, but not quite) conservation ideals to a whole bunch of bogan right wingers, or at least, to their kids.”

and germaine brought a critique and understanding of asserting fundamental human rights to a massive swathe of the australian community, kids and all. and to people across the globe. and despite her kid-fiddling persona of late, she is still relevant.

and mr irwin? he mistreated animals he was ‘conserving’ in the name of entertainment; in the guise of ‘showing the people’…

i’d swap a hundred irwins for one harry butler or david attenborough in a moment.

when will we get off the irwin bandwagon and on the ‘real’ conservation and nature appreciation one? not while the national portrait gallery panders to the masses’ uneducation.

what we need now is for the gallery to snap a portrait of the stingray…

buying up land to protect it is actively recommended by some green groups – I dnt’ have a problem with it.

A sad position for you to take AD, but you’re entitled to it.
I started off hating him and experiencing the same sort of cringe I do when I see Kath and Kim. But that changed as I saw the good he was doing, as portrayed by Thumper. Bugger the medium, what about the message??
I think that the way the net melted down here for almost an hour as the bad news spread would indicate that your opinion is in the very minor minority.

The Secretary12:00 pm 16 Feb 07

Irwin’s environmentalist credentials were welcomed by the Government and like-minded peeps because as a well-intentioned and wealthy landowner who was doing great things for the environment under his own motivation, he took the pressure off the Government to do these things themself.
Not quite a case of leaving the market to look after itself, but close.

Thumper is 100% correct when he says bringing “conservation ideals to a whole bunch of bogan right wingers, or at least, to their kids” is a good thing.

I dunno, his enviromentalism tended to consist of “I’m going to get extremely rich so I can buy all the environment I want to protect”. Which is somewhere between naive and actively evil.

except that women over 35 are largely invisible to me.

so i cant recall seeing the greer nude.

I think you’ll find ‘laughing your arse off’ at someone’s death makes you ‘sick in the head’. I have wished cancer upon you.

Absent Diane10:35 am 16 Feb 07

I hate that cocksmoker. I laughed my arse off when he got stung by that stingray.. he was sick in the head.

I dunno bonfire – Ms Greer in the altogether was pretty confronting too…

Does seem a awfully stong coincidence, though.

i always liked the michael boddy nude.

very confronting.

And he waved the flag at every opportunity.

As an ambassador of Australia, he did more before he got up in the morning than most other representatives do in their lives.

Considering, that he also made a living in his khaki king gee’s, that’s not too bad a contribution.

Johnboy- please feel free to detail your expertise and knowledge in animal education and conservation. We can compare this ‘boofy idiot’with your obviously superior intellect.

darkladywolf9:45 am 16 Feb 07

Greer was what was needed at the time. However she was for that time. These days she’s not someone I can admire, except for past deeds. So, she’s a historical icon, rather than having much relevance now.

Steve, I can easily admire. Yes, he’s a boofhead, but he was also someone that did some good things, and enjoyed what he did.

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