ART @ Art on the Net
Subject to Censorship

    This exhibition exists because of Art.net's involvement in the battle against Internet censorship. Its purpose is to educate and exhibit some of the work of member artists who would be affected by laws censoring the Internet.
    Censorship is insidious.
    Often it is presented in a guise which everyone would agree is a good thing, such as "protecting children from harm." None of us here at Art.net believe that children should be harmed, quite the contrary; however, this is a task best performed by parents, and not by government. One family's protection may be another's harm. In a country as diverse as the United States to assume otherwise is folly.
    Once we begin to set standards in public discourse whose purpose is to "protect children," that discourse also lowers itself to a level appropriate for children, eliminating the ability of adults to discuss, think, and act as adults.

The First Amendment to the
United States Constitution states:

Article 1.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
[Declared in force, 15 December 1791]

Visit ART ON THE NET's statement about Free Speech.

Over the last several years the Congress of the United States and a number of individual states have considered legislation designed to "protect minors" from the supposedly harmful effects of the Internet. One of the prime targets of these laws is what the framers of these laws regard as pornographic materials; however, the ways that these laws are written, any depiction of nudity and any discussion of sexuality, whether for artistic, political, or informational purposes, would become a felony and punished with both harsh fines and jail time.
While some people may believe that the First Ammendment only applies to "political speech," what these people fail to realize is that all "speech" is political when it says something which is subject to censure, or to put it simply, anything subject to censure is political, and is protected as "speech" because of its political nature. Art which is subject to censure is thus considered political speech in addition to its qualities as Art.

This gallery was established to give you an idea of the range of Art affected by these laws.

It is black because of the continued pressure that censorship makes on all our lives.

Arabella Decker | visit this artist's studio