At the heart of The Secret Garden, the much-loved children’s novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, in which a disagreeable orphan is transformed into a flourishing young girl, lies the protective power of secrecy.
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My secret life: on the benefits of secrecy
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Are we entering a new age of artistic censorship in Europe?
There is an uncomfortable moment in Ganesh Versus the Third Reich when the actors pause. The play, ostensibly about the Hindu deity travelling to Germany to reclaim the swastika, an ancient Sanskrit symbol, from the Nazis, comes to a halt as they remove their costumes—an elephant head and a SS armband—turn to face the audience, and ask: “Do we have the right to perform this?” None of the actors are Hindu or Jewish. Many have physical and mental disabilities but act the roles of Hitler and Josef Mengele, who tried to exterminate those similarly handicapped. Later, an actor drops out of character again, to accuse the crowd: “You’ve come to see some freak porn.
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Art show too male? At times, this cry makes no sense
The first major survey of abstract expressionism since 1959, which has just opened at the Royal Academy, has been accused of displaying too much testosterone.
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Does one ethnic group own its cultural artefacts?
Objects that once adorned display cases in museums around the world are disappearing from view. In recent decades, dramatic wooden Iroquois face masks, crafted by the nations and tribes of indigenous people of North America, have been taken off the shelves. Article on Aeon.
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Mourning in America
Article in the Spectator New York is in the grip of memorial mania In early 1991, the construction of a federal office building in lower Manhattan was halted after an unexpected discovery. Underneath the ground, …
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The rise of reverence in museums
Article in the Summer copy of Art Quarterly Magazine Museums professionals across the UK are increasingly treating certain artefacts in their collections as sacred. Over the last decade objects deemed to hold special significance or …
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Sense and sensitivity
Article in the Spectator Museums are restricting access to certain artefacts so as not to give offence. Read the
