The motivation behind the Victorian Police raid on Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts in St. Kilda is becoming clearer with more research. The Victorian Police are not in the habit of visiting art galleries looking for child pornography but they are too easily manipulated to do just that by conservative wanna-be politicians.
On 28th of May Adrian Jackson and Chris Spillane along with Cr Andrew Bond were at Port Phillip City Council meeting. (These three people were the only people complaining about the exhibition in The Leaders’s article. For more on these people see my post, Police Raid Gallery.) In public question time Chris Spillane’s agenda is made clear in the minutes of the meeting.
“Chris Spillane asked about a current art exhibition at the Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts in St Kilda. He stated that while he hasn’t seen the exhibition himself, from what he has heard about the exhibition it is offensive and pornographic in nature. He suggested that the exhibition should be shut down or at the very least there should be more appropriate signage warning of the contents, age restrictions in place, and this section of the gallery should be cordoned off. He asked, as sponsors of the gallery, what action the Council intends to take?”
“Mayor Amanda Stevens responded that the gallery is run by an independent board and that there is already appropriate signing regarding the exhibition in question in place.”
Adrian Jackson’s agenda become apparent in a comment that he made in The Leader. Posted at 7:31 PM June 2, 2013: “Mission accomplished – the kiddy art exhibition is now closed. Next step is getting the Linden Gallery to be self funding instead of behaving like a parasite on ratepayers. Currently $100,000 PA is spent by Port Phillip Council on maintenance and equipment in the Linden which has been a ratepayer owned building for the last 25 years or so. This money does not appear in the Linden’s annual Statement of Affairs (see their website) as far as I can see but what is included is about $250,000 PA in ratepayer funds in “operating cost”. All this for 6 or 7 exhibitions per year involving about 6 artists per exhibition. The large post card exhibition could be moved to the town hall and the Linden closed if it cant be self funded. Other galleries in Port Phillip can fund themselves so why cant the Linden committee. I understand that this years exhibition was probably organised last years before the current new committee member joined it.”
The artist, Paul Yore has interviewed by detectives from the St Kilda Crime Investigation Unit and the police have yet to lay any charges. The detectives and the mainstream media have yet to examine the conservative political agenda behind the complaint. It is a shame that they are unable to do the same research that I have done.
Black Mark 
June 5th, 2013 at 1:18 AM
The refusal to see a difference between deliberate artifice and images of real children here seems similar to these previous examples of the same phenomenon – http://indolentdandy.net/fitzroyalty/2011/04/14/thoughtcrime-offences-against-fictional-characters/
June 5th, 2013 at 9:18 AM
I wonder how many of these examples were overturned on appeal. I know that there judges and magistrates with little ability to reason and an ass licking desire to help the prosecution.
There is also the phenomenon of the police dismissing real child abuse as a fantasy when the accused was a Catholic priest.
June 5th, 2013 at 7:05 PM
Mark, you are jumping at shadows. The only motivation was to maintain some sense of decency and standards in a publicly funded gallery. How could this be some political agenda? I visited the gallery the day after the Council meeting to verify what I had been told. Worse than I thought. There are more than 3 people who find it offensive.
For your further information, my wife and I have visited galleries around the world and are fortunate enough to own a few nice pieces ourselves.
Apparently anyone with a conservative viewpoint is evil and should not be heard. For example my criticism of the left’s version of multiculturalism (i.e. tribalism) hade the race card played against me.
Despite the hostility I intend to stay true to what I think is right and decent. This just happens to be a trait of conservatives and not stemming from any political agenda.
June 5th, 2013 at 7:33 PM
Chris, you can’t deny that you are aware of the motivation of Adrian Jackson, as you were with him at the Port Phillip City Council meeting and especially as you have now read his “mission accomplished” comments in my blog post. Your political motivation is clear to impose your idea of decency and morality on everyone else.
I never denied that you went to galleries but pointed out that conservatives like you are unlikely visitors to a contemporary art centre like Linden. And you admit that you only went to Linden to verify what had been told.
I have never suggested that you or other conservatives shouldn’t be heard, I strongly disagree that you should be allowed to provoke the police into censoring others. I enjoy hearing from people like yourself because you condemn and expose your agenda with your own words.
June 5th, 2013 at 7:20 PM
Chris, your ‘decency’ is our censorship. We don’t care if you are offended. You don’t have a right not to be offended. This art may not be to your taste but that is not sufficient to call the police. These works are not images of real children being abused and so cannot be illegal in themselves.
June 6th, 2013 at 9:28 AM
Mark, at the risk of ongoing correspondence , I thought I should correct some of your assumptions. Firstly Adrian Jackson is a serial attendee at Council meetings and I was not ‘with him’. I think it was my raising of the issue that initiated his interest(I am told that he was kicked out of the Liberal Party many years ago). Secondly I have visited the Linden Gallery in the past. Lastly, decency and morality I would consider as virtues necessary for a civilised society and can be adopted by anyone of any political persuasion.
Classification and age restrictions apply to the moving image and logically should apply to any media or art form. That was what I suggested as a minimum, or closed down if illegal. The Police/Courts will be the ultimate arbiters of the last issue. Maybe if Council or the Linden Board took heed and did have better controls in place, things may not have got this far.
Obviously people have different interpretations of good and bad art or what the boundaries are. I would hope that this contest of views can continue.
June 6th, 2013 at 11:19 AM
Chris, I welcome your correspondence because I am interested in covering all sides of the story. What I would like to know is did it take long to convince the police that they should raid Linden? Did you tell the police that you had been unable to convince the city council of a need to change the exhibition? Why do think that appealing blunt police force is an appropriate reaction when you are unable to persuade others in a contest of opinion?
June 6th, 2013 at 11:35 PM
Chris I was not kicked out of the Liberals. Ask the clown who told you that to check his or he facts. See my comments on Black Mark for 06 Jun 13 and on Crikey once the moderator checks it tomorrow.
June 6th, 2013 at 12:39 PM
As a final word, my reading of blogs suggests that Mr Jackson contacted police, not me, as his blogging warned of an imminent raid. The press was also present at the Council meeting and a subsequent story was posted the next day. I would think that the police (& others) would also read the local paper and might act proactively. I personally know two people who visited prior to me and took offence so there should be more similarly affected people. More should be revealed when and if a case is proceeded with.
June 6th, 2013 at 1:02 PM
Thank you Chris for this clarifications. I wondered how it came to the attention of the police. I must have a read of Mr Jackson’s blog and the report on the council meeting in The Leader.
June 6th, 2013 at 11:43 PM
Yes I rang St Kilda police a week before the police intervention and after my second visit to Linden Gallery after I found out about the kiddy porn in the grotto that I did not enter on my first visit. My 3rd visit last Friday was to get a second opinion from my sister who was visiting me. She was disgusted. A documentary film maker interviewed me on film today for a possible future national TV doco on the Linden Gallery fiasco
June 21st, 2016 at 1:47 PM
[…] that and it remains a misunderstood event. Yore found himself caught up in an on going local political issue about funding of Linden Gallery that had been going on for […]
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