RIPPLES from Creative Australia’s decision to dump a Lebanese-Australian artist as Australia’s representative at the Venice Biennale are still being felt in WA’s arts community, who say they’re concerned about political interference chilling the creative process.
Creative Australia’s board dumped artist Khaled Sabsabi after Coalition arts spokesperson Claire Chandler questioned whether two of his historical works were “promoting terrorism”, the controversy sparking a late-night Senate hearing.
The Chook picked up some recent social media chatter amongst local creatives about the issue, so reached out to find out how the controversy was affecting them.
The Rechabite director, Fringe World founder and former Artrage CEO Marcus Canning called the board’s withdrawal of support for Sabsabi “one of the most unconscionable and cowardly acts of unnecessary censorship” in recent Australian history.
Khaled Sabsabi’s work YOU featured video images of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
“The CEO and Board of Creative Australia… decided to drop the artist. Absolutely pathetic behaviour and a total abdication of their responsibilities,” Mr Canning said.
Mr Canning said back in the 1970s the Whitlam government created the precursor to Creative Australia, the Australia Council, to operate at arms-length from the government.
“Establishing independent boards of artform peers that would recommend funding, ensuring that there was adequate funding for them to do good work,” he said.
Mr Canning said Whitlam’s model successfully fostered a vibrant Australian cultural scene domestically and internationally for decades.
Instability
He said shifting, partisan government attitudes toward the arts created instability and undermined that success.
Mr Canning sat on the Australia Council’s New Media Arts Board in the early 2000s when he became embroiled in a similar controversy.
“In 2003, we funded the development of a video game called Escape from Woomera that critiqued the treatment of detainee asylum seekers in the notorious desert immigration detention centre prison camp.
“Funding this work was controversial, and the minister for immigration at the time publicly attacked the Australia Council for allowing it,” he said.
“Two years later after an internal review, the New Media Arts board was dissolved as an Australia Council board. Its board members weren’t even informed until it happened.”
Mr Canning says under former Abbot government arts minister George Brandis, there were also moves to favour conservative art forms over those courting controversy – particularly after festivals were criticised for their fossil fuel sponsorship.
“This white-anting of the values of independent arms-length funding, free of political interference, went into super-drive a decade later when George Brandis as arts minister… attacked the core and essence of the Australia Council,” Mr Canning said.
“Huge funding cuts were followed by a raid and re-appropriation of Australia Council funds into a new arts funding pool where Brandis personally chose who would get what; mostly high art conservative artforms that were to his personal liking,” he said.
“The Australian Council resurrected itself as Creative Australia, and a decade after the Brandis horror-show it would seem senior arts bureaucrats within the administration are still haunted, jumping at shadows at the whiff of controversy associated with any support given,” Mr Canning said.
“There is talk of [Sabsabi] exhibiting elsewhere in Venice… funded through crowdfunding from the sector. That would be an appropriate fuck-you to the few twitchy individuals,” Mr Canning said.
Fremantle Biennale director Tom Muller agrees it would be great to see Sabsabi in Venice, calling Creative Australia’s decision “a travesty”, particularly as it targeted decades-old works.
Sabsabi’s 2006 video Thank You Very Much and 2007 installation YOU became focal points of the debate.
The former juxtaposed 9/11 imagery with a clip of George W Bush, critiquing media propaganda.
The latter featured Hassan Nasrallah, then-leader of Hezbollah, which Australia designated a terrorist group in 2021.
“Why can he not comment on these things,” Mr Muller queried, though noting that Sabsabi’s latest works were focussed on “inclusivity and diversity”.
Mr Muller said Creative Australia’s government ties create a “sanction” vulnerable to censorship.
“This [decision] paints us as this very singular-minded nation… we want inclusivity, a much broader scope on diversity, ethnicity, and religious freedom.
Artistic voices
“Institutions should remain autonomous, independent bodies, free of any political agenda… [to] champion artistic voices,” he said.
“Artists must remain true to yourself, it’s the rest that needs to change.”
Mr Muller praised artist Lindy Lee and philanthropist Simon Mordant’s resignations from Creative Australia in protest at the decision, while Mr Canning supported fellow artists who’d refused to step in and fill Australia’s spot at the Biennale.
“It’s embarrassing that [the pavilion] will be empty in 2026… but it’s validating to see the sector rally behind Sabsabi,” Mr Canning said.
The Biennale, often called the “Olympics of the art world,” has historically showcased Australian talent, including Archie Moore’s 2024 Golden Lion-winning work Kith and Kin.
Creative Australia’s has said it will review its Venice Biennale selection process.
by VENZ ROCAS