IT'S "dangerous territory" for elected officials to weigh in on what is and what is not art, says the CEO of NSW Museums and Galleries, Brett Adlington, amid debate over the contents of an exhibition in Maitland.
At the heart of both the exhibition from artist Osvaldo Budet and the debate is the controversial statue on Maitland's High Street variously referred to as the 'Jocko Graves' hitching post and ''Maitland's little black boy".
Budet says his exhibition brings together six years of research and 20 artworks looking at the Maitland Black Boy Hitching Post, which he describes as a racist object, protected through nostalgia, decoration and local heritage.
The exhibition at Maitland Regional Art Gallery invites a public conversation about what the image represents, who it harms, and what stories the community chooses to preserve in shared public spaces, Budet says.
But Maitland City Council has taken extraordinary measures to publicly distance itself from the exhibition, both inside and outside the council chambers.
A sign has been erected inside the gallery saying the council acknowledged the "display may cause offence," to members of the Maitland community "who have long valued and admired the iconic Hitching Post statue".
"While [the] council recognises and shares those views, [the] council also respects freedom of expression and the artist's right to present this exhibition on this occasion", the sign says.
Maitland mayor Philip Penfold has also made his position clear online: "Jocko Will Remain", he said on social media defending the statue's place in history, since "before Les Darcy was born".
That came after he won support for a mayoral minute in which he invited the council to express "high level disappointment" in the decision to exhibit a display "disparaging the Jocko Graves hitching post".
NSW Galleries and Museums' Mr Adlington said he had concerns generally about officials stepping into the "curatorial realm" of the gallery.
"It's the role of the curatorial staff there to manage how works and exhibitions are interpreted, and it does set a dangerous precedent when elected officials step into that territory," Mr Adlington said.
He would be visiting the exhibition himself in September, he said, but he understood the work itself was just presenting a history about an object in Maitland.
"I think an artist has the right to do that, and for an elected body to step in and undermine the views of an artist is quite dangerous territory," Mr Adlington said.
"The mayoral motion questioned whether it was an artwork or not. Again, that is dangerous territory as well, to be making decisions, undermining the role of the gallery on what is and isn't art.
"Of course art has a role to spark debate about particular issues, but we believe, as an organisation, that it's the artist's role to do that. The work itself wasn't condemning the community at all, it was just presenting factual evidence about the history of this particular object."
That position had been shared to the general manager, Mr Adlington said.
Insiders say that gallery staff have been instructed not to comment on, or promote the exhibition, however, the council said in a statement that the Upriver Downriver exhibition, feature the work of 50 artists including Budet, "has been and continues to be promoted through a range of channels including, but not limited to, websites, social media channels, and media releases".
The mayor was not available for comment.
The gallery's former director, Gerry Bobsien, who finished up in the role on Friday (July 31) said her resignation was unrelated to the exhibition.
Ms Bobsien is leaving to work at Mimili Maku Arts in South Australia, after working on a project at the University of Newcastle developing a curatorial strategy for the library collection.
It felt right to be working on that project at this particular time when "the agency and importance of cultural and learning institutions feels critical", Ms Bobsien said in announcing her departure online.
In Cr Penfold's mayoral minute, he said that, while art may be thought-provoking, he considered the 4000-word display to be "primarily a political statement rather than an exhibition of art".
In an interview with the Maitland Mercury, Budet said the sign introduced at his exhibition was "extremely revealing about who they are," and he was not surprised.
"I'm not surprised because they've been trying to whitewash this history of a black boy on top of a cotton bale a slave, an American slave, has nothing to do with Australian history, nothing," he said.
He has confirmed he is not calling for the removal of the statue, but is questioning the validity and origins of stories and beliefs long held about where it came from, why it's still there, and what it says.
For the mayor to declare it was "too political to be art" had a lovely 1950s ring to it, he said.
"Come for the art. Stay for the municipal panic," Budet said online.
"My exhibition examines a racist colonial figure depicting a black child in servitude. Council can spend 10 minutes debating whether truth-telling qualifies as art. You can visit the exhibition and decide for yourself."
The mayoral minute was supported by seven councillors, and rejected by the four Labor councillors.
Mindaribba Aboriginal Land council chief executive Tara Dever said the mayor's statement that "Jocko shall remain", was completely out of touch.
"I don't think anyone's put forward that he wouldn't remain," Ms Dever said.
"The exhibition discusses what that statue means, and it asks people to have a look and think outside of their own positions and see it from the position of other people."
