2007, 14”(h) x 11”(w), Limited-edition print
NANCY WORTHINGTON’S ARTWORK GATEWAY TO HOPE
CENSORED FROM BEIJING EXHIBIT
Worthington’s artwork “Gateway to Hope”, accepted into the International Women’s Artists Exhibition, Her Presence in Colours VIII-Beijing 2008, April 11-25 at the China National Art Gallery, was censored by the China National Censorship Board.
On March 25, 2008 I received an e-mail from The Conservatory of Fine Arts, sponsors of the Beijing Exhibit that my artwork “Gateway to Hope” was censored from the exhibition. (The artwork was accepted in October 2007.) I created this work specifically for the exhibition which is entitled “Dream of Peace”. I was told that “Gateway to Hope” was rejected because of its political context. Works by other artists which contained political content (opposition to the Iraq war, Palestinian-Israeli conflict) were left in the show. My belief is that “Gateway to Hope” was censored because it contained an image of the Statue of Liberty, which I used as a symbol of hope.
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
SANTA ROSA. CALIFORNIA
THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 2008
CHRIS SMITH
EYE OF THE CENSOR: Another local artist named Nancy favors a more political brand of expression.
Sebastopol’s Nancy Worthington can be pointedly provocative. But she insists the piece she submitted to a current international exhibit in Beijing was intended simply as an expression of hope for friendship between the United States and China.
Shortly before the show opened at the China National Art Gallery, an e-mail informed her that censors had banned her piece because of its “political context.”
…
Worthington suspects that what set off the censors was her image of the Statue of Liberty, not a symbol communist China wants on display. Worthington’s sense is that instead of becoming more open in response to the international pressure being heaped on them in advance of the Olympics, Chinese authorities “are going in the opposite direction.”