A duty to speak up when our emperor is naked

AFEW years ago, I might have called Jacana and asked if it was interested in publishing a coffee-table book of my work !eople there would have asked "#rett who$% I was, you see, massive only in Woodstock &o it is with deep irony that I have to thank the current custodians of our democracy for the leg up they have given me in terms of name recognition A few months ago I was having my blood taken by a large, grumpy and officious-looking 'hosa woman &he plunged a needle into my arm and asked me sternly if I was "that #rett (urray$% What would you do$ I denied, denied, denied &he wasn)t convinced and asked me repeatedly "Are you sure you are not that #rett (urray$% until I finally, sheepishly confessed* "+es, it)s me I am him,% &he guffawed and said she had been talking about the &pear thing with her nursing friends that very morning and invited them all in to my blood-letting for introductions -hey were delighted to meet me and we went on a sad and funny tirade against the powers that be, with all wishing me good fortune and a peaceful future . with huge bosomy hugs, nogal, -he idea for a book came from many threads and thoughts A part of it might be to mark an end of a period of production, or maybe to conte/tualise the recent contentious events 0hoosing the cover was difficult, more so with the &pear saga being still so close and hanging over me I was, and still remain, confident of both its awkward nuances and my intentions with this photograph, particularly in the conte/t of the rest of the works I produced for the show #ut what the &pear saga has unveiled is a self-consciousness, a cross-1uestioning and a doubt in my practice, an acute self-censorship, which is e/actly what the current crop at the helm would want . pre-censorship -ransgressive ideas and imagery push and shift boundaries and, if effectively used and charged, can result in cathartic understandings and fresh reflections Works and ideas that divide and challenge are interesting to me I am drawn to this thin edge of the wedge, but not e/clusively With these works, the possibilities for discussion are often effected It is up to artists, playwrights, filmmakers, poets and the like to attempt to tell these uncomfortable stories, to invent, to reimagine, to construct metaphors . and to be able to do this without fear and without the added burden of an abusive government and its attempts to censor and sanitise these, and by pro/y, all ideas I am my own worst critic I am as battle-weary as all of us are regarding the meta-narratives of this troubled country I so don)t want to see another film about the big issues in &outh Africa, or a play about apartheid oppression, or read a book about the continuing poverty of many &outh Africans 2ne of my recent press statement reads* "(urray)s bron3es, etchings, paintings and silkscreens form part of a vitriolic and succinct censure of bad governance and are his attempts to humorously e/pose the paucity of morals and greed within the ruling elite % 4on)t you 5ust want to run screaming and go and see &hrek in 64$ I do #ut this is the uncomfortable monkey on my back It is what I do and have to do and will return to again and again And although it might seem that what social commentators are producing are reflections of what is happening "out there% e/clusively, pointing accusatory fingers . and to some it might look like a gallery has been lambasted with wet newspapers, leaving behind only traces of current headlines and popular graphics . all the work we do is driven by an internal, almost therapeutic, and private process In reflecting on what is unfolding, we hope to articulate a very personal understanding and an idiosyncratic psychological sense of place, and we begin to describe who we are with this anomalous vision

!arado/ically, through this criti1ue and comic e/posure, we actually begin to define a preferred ideal in which we would like to live Autobiographical by default As it should be* in this process there is a constant recalibration and fine-tuning of who I am, where I am, my privilege, my class and inevitably, I suppose, my whiteness And this is all good It)s 5ust a pity that all the work I have produced up to -he&pear and all the work I will make going forward will always be seen in relation to this event -his could be an albatross around my neck or 5ust an irritation It depends on how I deal with it, I suppose -he &pearnearly didn)t see the light of day I was ambivalent about adding the d77k to the painting I thought then, and still do, that it might have been a stronger and a more layered work without it, specifically in the conte/t of the rest of the show, in which I was parodying the pseudo-&oviet iconography and the "0omrade, 8iva-8iva% language of the new pigs at the trough #ut I stuck with it once it was painted, more out of la3iness than anything else -he 9afkaes1ue events that unfolded regarding -he &pear seemed to have been scripted by the (ar/ #rothers on acid -hat is not :arpo, 0hico, ;roucho and <eppo, but rather Jacob, #lade, Jackson and ;wede -he script included a court case I received the state)s legal documents from our attorneys -hese included a file containing full-colour images of -he &pear and all the :ail to the -hief works on show With a combination of fear and delight I saw that =o > had had to go through my entire show, work for work, and sign each page and image -alk about "speaking truth to power% directly =a3eer 0assim, one of Jacob <uma)s personal lawyers, had been trying behind the scenes to get the A=0 to withdraw the case, but with no luck 2n the day of the court case, he approached the A=0 protagonists and said that <uma wanted to settle We can only speculate why <uma wanted out -he fanning of the flames of racism by a faction in the A=0 and the resulting threats of violence were unhinging the country and this was becoming unmanageable (aybe it was because the state had a weak case and <uma had better legal opinion (aybe <uma didn)t want his dirty laundry publicly aired again 2r he is a very, very weak president and the seat of power lies at ?uthuli :ouse It is probably a combination of them all Just before the start of the trial another call was made, apparently to <uma by A=0 spokesperson Jackson (thembu, insisting that the A=0 was going ahead with the case despite the president wanting out And then, in the inimitable words of the secretary-general of the A=0, ;wede (antashe* "What we can)t win in the courts we will win in the streets,% &o much for our constitutional democracy 4eath threats against the protagonists escalated A call was made for the boycott of 0ity !ress Ferial :affa5ee ultimately capitulated under the pressure and took the image off the 0ity !ress website, as demanded by the A=0 &he would later say that she, and all of us, had been played, and in hindsight she would never cede to the bullying tactics of the state again Journalists were then . and are still now . scathing of her decision In her defence, we were all incredibly vulnerable and it is difficult for others to comprehend the pressures and fears that had enveloped all of us at the time I always thought that the press was the cornerstone of this battle and should have taken centre stage An unhindered and free press is crucial for our democracy Artistic freedom of e/pression, although obviously important, seems like a sideshow in our conte/t &o although I was as disappointed as others, I understood where :affa5ee)s decision came from -hat the painting was used for e/pedient political ends was obvious, and the state)s legal team virtually conceded this to various protagonists -he whole saga was @AB politics and >AB art I remained silent throughout the ordeal because I instinctively thought this would be wise I also 5ust wanted to listen I was as interested as everyone was in the various debates and positions that were discussed and taken regarding the painting

-he more measured conversations ultimately came down to where freedom of e/pression ends and the right to dignity begins I am well aware of our shameful history that necessitated that this right to dignity be included in our elo1uent constitution -he arguments that the work perpetuated post-colonial visions of overse/ed black males are e1ually important We all have to be constantly reminded of these issues and our conte/t I found it informative that once the state)s propaganda machine had been ramped up, and once the calls of racism had been sparked and fanned in the tinder dry conte/t of poverty-stricken &outh Africa, these flames would catch -his was populist propagandising at its very core I found it interesting that all those commentators who had une1uivocally supported the painting to begin with started to hedge their bets and were now calling for a freedom of e/pression with added caveats and provisos J( 0oet3ee wrote in his essay on censorship, -aking 2ffence, rather appropriately in the conte/t of -he &pear* "A censor pronouncing a ban is like a man trying to stop his penis from standing up -he spectacle is ridiculous, so ridiculous that he is soon a victim not only of his unruly member but of pointing fingers, laughing voices -hat is why the institution of censorship has to surround itself with secondary bans on the infringement of its dignity % -here is a now a huge grey area, and this can only be positive going forward in our new democracy I believe the defacing of the painting was staged At the time it happened I was actually relieved . it seemed to lower the temperature considerably I was concerned that there might be violence and possible killings that I didn)t want in any way to be associated with, or be a victim of And although a settlement was finally agreed to, I still believe, fundamentally and to my core, that there are no compromises with regard to the freedom of e/pression Finally, it was with e1ual measures of anger and disappointment that I e/pressed my contempt for some in the new regime who, through their corruption and guile, are undermining the victories that have been achieved and who are effectively desecrating the graves of our struggle heroes !olitical correctness and self-censorship are not cornerstones of effective political satire If they were, it would not be called satire, rather "ironic praise-singing% !arody is part of the satirist)s arsenal and it is often through this that I hope to e/pose the new pigs at the trough Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on where you stand, nothing is sacred -he silence of those in the echelons of power when there were public incitements for the killing of some of us, and when private death threats were made public, renders them all complicit in the attempts to subvert the constitutionally enshrined freedom of e/pression and the brutal suppression of dissent This is an edited version of a speech given by the artist at the launch of his book, Brett Murray: a Retrospective