Well, of course they did.
artsHub reports that 101 Vagina, an exhibition held at 107 Projects Gallery in Redfern from June 27-30, came under close police scrutiny. You could say police watched the vagina exhibition very, very closely, visiting the gallery on four separate occasions to monitor the exhibition and make censorship suggestions.
The exhibition's content was taken from Philip Werner's 101 Vagina coffee table book. Werner told artsHub that the police were a constant presence at the exhibition.
"The first time they came they apparently weren't acting on a complaint," he said; "I don't know why they came, maybe just to check it out. And they had a look around, realised that it wasn't porn, realised that nothing was displayed in the windows, and left again. The second time they came, apparently they responded to a complaint that the artwork could be seen through the windows and they suggested, though not demanded... that the windows be covered."
The gallery complied with all requests. Posters advertising the exhibition — which aimed to break down the taboo around vaginas, genitalia and sexuality — also attracted complaints; the posters did not contain nudity but did prominently feature the word 'vagina' (Shock! Horror!).
"Complaints like this show that we still have a long way to go in the removing of this taboo and in feeling comfortable with out bodies and our sexuality," Werner told artsHub. "We were all conceived and born through the vagina, vaginas are sacred, not obscene!"
