Last year, a number of Brown’s eating establishments invited students to put their original art on the walls. Since then, the walls have slowly become smattered with the good, the bad, the ugly, and the sometimes funny art of Brown University students.
On one of the walls at the Gate there is a compelling mural that juxtaposes images of the Republican elephant and prominent conservative politicians with images of more than thirty male genitalia and cutouts of quotes from anti-gay rights activists. The mural has been there since the middle of last school year, and it hangs there still today. For a short time, last year, just a few feet away, hung ten images of a developing fetus and one image of a newborn baby. The art invited students to “place a sticker at the stage in the developmental process that they considered the fetus to be human”.
The show, entitled Beyond Vaginas, was the creation of five student artists who wanted to explore reproductive issues using art, and so they formed a group independent study project. “We would read papers and try to figure out how to tell people about what we read visually,” said Jennifer Quiroa ‘09, one of the student artists. “We didn’t want to shove any ideas down anybody’s throat.” Nevertheless, it seems that may have been precisely what happened. Within less than 48 hours the art was no longer up. In an email to the artists, the managers at the Gate requested that the girls take it down, citing the following reasons: 1) there should not be pictures of female’s private parts in public spaces; 2) the art makes pro-choice people feel uncomfortable; 3) one of the displays equates black people and Jews to unborn children; and 4) the terms fetus and unborn child were used interchangeably on one piece’s placard.
“Only two of us are actually pro-life,” Jennifer told me, “and none of the art was pornographic” despite the Gate manager’s claim. And when Jennifer heard that one of the placards used the term fetus and unborn child interchangeably, she ran to the Gate, and hung up a new placard correcting the error right away. The accusation regarding the equation of black people and Jews with unborn children came from one of Jennifer’s pieces in which she had three facts displayed in three picture frames. In one frame was written “the Supreme Court Ruled in 1816 that blacks were not considered human.” The second had written in it, “During a speech on May 1923, Hitler said ‘Jews are not Human.’” And, the final frame read, “According to the Supreme Court, today unborn children are not considered human.”
“I was really upset,” Jennifer said. “I was upset that my art came out to some people as being pushy.” Anna Hsu ‘10, another one of the student artists, was surprised. “I was shocked that someone would put in the effort to complain. Art is supposed to be provocative; art is supposed to make you think.” Anna said, “I was really confused by the standards. For example, there was a disturbing photo about anorexia that wasn’t exactly pleasant to look at. And I remember a picture of a guy who was naked from behind.” While Anna’s art was not among those included in the complaint, her art was removed along with the rest of the display.
When I asked Jennifer if she would hang her pieces up again if the Gate asked her, she answered enthusiastically, “Absolutely!” When I asked Brown University Dining Services (BUDS) if they would extend such an invitation, I was told only that BUDS reserves the “right to disqualify pieces based on what we think our customers should be looking at while enjoying a meal we prepared for them.” And so, for now, if the girls want their provocative display to be seen, they will have to show it some other place.
I’m glad this got written.