Invitations and Becomings

Henson's press release (which he released through the gallery holding the now-infamous exhibition of his work) sums up beautifully the point I tried to make in my post the other day. This is the extract reported in the SMH yesterday:

Tonight the AMA is demanding plays or films involving smoking be refused government funding. The story makes a nice complement to the Bill Henson controversy, but that's only because this is the kind of moral incursion into the arts that should be vigorously resisted.

The AMA's argument is simply bankrupt. The AMA argues that, since smoking is a "blight on society", it should not be depicted anywhere on stage and screen, or at least not when that depiction is tax-payer funded.