Sparks fly as the art vs pornography debate rears its ugly head in Chelsea.
Chelsea's neighboured watch brigade have been working flat out this week complaining about the Bob Carlos Clarke photography exhibition, Full Throttle, currently on show at the Little Black Gallery. So furious has the outcry been among the curtain twitchers and yummy mummies in the area that police have been forced to visit the gallery for themselves. The locals are apparently outraged that sexually explicit images from the exhibition are displayed in the window of the gallery, situated close to a primary school for all to see.
Talking to the Art Newspaper, Police inspector Sean Flynn examined the two 'pornographic' works in question and came to the following conclusion: “My assessment is that Whip Girl [2000] is acceptable, but I have some concerns about Tite Street [1990]. [It] appears to show a man having rear entry sex with a woman who is bent double and not wearing any knickers.[...]. It is my assessment that Tite Street should not be able to be clearly viewed from the street.”
Rather than heed the police warning that the works on show could quite possibly be a breach of the Public Order Act, the director of the Little Black Gallery has had a few novel peace-keeping ideas. Apparently he has removed the police approved Whip Girl and swapped it for Miss X Was No Angel, 1990, in his words an “even more provocative” piece of full frontal nudity. It is art after all. Bet the Kensington and Chelsea lot will be choking on their soya chai lattes as we speak.
Bob Carlos Clarke - Full Throttle is on at The Little Black Gallery until 5 June.
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