GagWatch

MediaWatchWatch have picked up this story from The Observer:

One of Britain’s leading conceptual artists has accused the Tate gallery of ‘cowardice’ after it banned one of his major works for fear of offending some Muslims after the London terrorist bombings.

John Latham’s God Is Great consists of a large sheet of thick glass with copies of Islam, Christianity and Judaism’s most sacred texts - the Koran, Bible and Talmud - apparently embedded within its surface.

The work was due to go on display last week in an exhibition dedicated to Latham at London’s Tate Britain, but gallery officials took the unprecedented decision to veto it because of political and religious sensitivities.

This is a ten year old sculpture which has, so far, attracted no complaints.

Not surprisingly, Latham is furious and Liberty have also expressed their condemnation of the gallery’s pre-emptive cowardice.

According to Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty:

‘We share his concern,’ she said. ‘I don’t know what precise thought processes were going on at the Tate but I am concerned about the signal this sends at a time when we see free speech quite significantly under threat.

‘I think that after 7 July we need this kind of artistic expression and political expression and discourse and disagreement more than ever, which is why this is worrying. Is three holy books in a piece of glass going to incite controversy?

‘Frankly, whether it does or doesn’t, controversy is what we have in a flourishing democracy.’

Quite.

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