They say that there is no bad publicity in the art world, and well here we go round the mulberry bush yet again with Bill Henson’s latest at Roslyn Oxley9 in Sydney. The truncated sound bytes we are hearing across the media waves say much less than there is to say and take us nowhere; Its art, tis not, tis, etc echoing the characters of another artist by the name of Henson, with Miss Piggy landing a good purse wallop through the moral majority and the shock jock media while Kermits’ and other Muppets mount a strident arm waving and lame high pitched art for arts sake, defense.

Now I have not followed the career of Bill Henson closely but I believe those who have the power to dispense titles or deal in superlatives have added him to the list of Australia’s greatest artists. But in my humble opinion Henson is just an artist who over the years has achieved a technical competence and a recognizable subject oeuvre that has given him an audience, some good opportunities and a fairly regular paycheck. Henson is like the rest of us who profess or admit to following the occupation artist, is in the business of representation and creating metaphors and allegories that may or may not have an impact on the social and cultural landscape.

I can only guess what Bill Henson’s or Roslyn Qxley9 intention was in mounting this exhibition, but I am reminded of a history of painting covering the subject of the biblical story of Susanna and the Elders. And it is here that few of the ‘greats’ pop up, Artemisia Gentileschi, Lorenzo Lotto, Rembrandt and many others each with a different intention spanning the wide gamut from intended titillation to proclaiming the demise of morals in17th c protestant northern Europe.

In Henson’s ‘Susanna’ the elders are not represented by the camera but none the less are very present, just like the King and Queen in Velasquez Las Meninas we the elders stand before the object and will make our judgements from the many positions we may take in regard to these works. So excuse my world-weariness, but this in the end will only enhance Henson’s reputation in the art world even if he takes some heavy hits in the legal one. Of course at this time the voice of Henson’s contemporary teen, Susanna and others he has photographed is not present publicly. And as I have not seen the current Henson works I will just refer to the painting by Gentileschi, whose Susanna called out for assistance to God and those elders who charged with protecting her had betrayed her innocence. “O eternal God, who dost discern what is secret, who art aware of all things before they come to be, thou knowest that these men have borne false witness against me. And now I am to die! Yet I have done none of the things that they have wickedly invented against me!”