[R-G] Artist hangs reworked Al-Jazeera logo to stir censorship debate

[Anthony Fenton]

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2008/09/22/ot-aljazeera-080922.html

Artist hangs reworked Al-Jazeera logo to stir censorship debate
Last Updated: Monday, September 22, 2008 | 10:31 AM ET  
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CBC News

The artwork's location on the journalism building is the perfect  
context, said artist Jamelie Hassan.The artwork's location on the  
journalism building is the perfect context, said artist Jamelie  
Hassan. (Kate Porter/CBC)A neon sign that reads "Shame on you" in  
Arabic now greets students approaching Carleton University's  
journalism building.

The artwork, intended to stir debate about censorship, is designed to  
resemble the logo of the Arabic television news network Al-Jazeera,  
said Jamelie Hassan, the artist who crafted it.

Hassan will be holding a public dialogue Monday evening at the  
university about her pieceAl Jazeera and the controversial Canadian  
Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission decision that  
inspired it.

In 2004 the national broadcast regulator ruled that Al-Jazeera could  
broadcast in Canada, but required companies carrying the channel to  
monitor it 24 hours a day for offensive content. The apparent  
unwillingness of any cable company to do so has been blamed for the  
fact that none carry the network, which has both Arabic and English- 
language services.

Hassan calls the CRTC decision censorship.

Her luminous teardrop-shaped piece is a little larger than a bicycle  
wheel and hangs two storeys up against the red brick wall of the St.  
Patrick's Building. It has an interior criss-crossed by a sweeping,  
curved script.

Hassan said its display on a building used by students of journalism,  
cultural studies and visual art is the perfect context to explore her  
idea.

"Because there are so many people there who are trained to think, to  
ask the questions," she said.

She added that she hopes it will make people wonder about Al-Jazeera  
and the issues surrounding the CRTC decision.

"Maybe this will bring some of the school of journalism students into  
the art gallery. That in itself would be a big step."

The CRTC has cleared Al-Jazeera for broadcast in Canada, but requires  
companies that carry the channel to monitor it 24 hours a day for  
offensive content. The channel's actual logo is shown here.The CRTC  
has cleared Al-Jazeera for broadcast in Canada, but requires companies  
that carry the channel to monitor it 24 hours a day for offensive  
content. The channel's actual logo is shown here. (CBC)Karim Karim,  
head of the journalism department at Carleton, will be joining Hassan  
for the public dialogue, which will be moderated by Canadian studies  
professor Eva Mackey.

Karim said the piece, which he sees daily on the way to work, made him  
think more deeply about the way the Canadian system works.

"If we do uphold the freedom of expression, then maybe we shouldn't  
hide behind seven-second delays and other mechanisms, which basically  
lead to the censoring of certain voices in our society," he said.

Hassan's piece is part of the Carleton University Art Gallery  
exhibition ImagiNation: New Cultural Topographies, which showcases  
work by seven artists about Canadian identity and will run until  
November.
Students responding

Many students passing by the neon work last week were unaware of its  
significance.

"It's got a graffiti kind of look to it but it looks really cool,"  
remarked Justin Morvay, who admitted he didn't know what it meant, but  
was interested to find out.

Fellow student Renato Giamberardino said he wasn't sure about the  
medium, which he thought was out of place at a university.

"Seems a little Vegas," he said.

But when told about its meaning, he was clearly intrigued.

"That's a little controversial … It's weird, now I'm going to be  
looking at that all the time," he said, adding that he has three  
classes at the St. Patrick's Building.

The piece has prompted at least some students, like Adam Chenard, to  
think about what he also called a controversial issue.

"But, I mean, it's also something that's related to some people's  
culture," he said while standing outside the building. "So I don't see  
why in a multicultural country like ours, we'd be censoring something  
like that."

The dialogue with Hassan was scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday in the  
Carleton University Art Gallery.

Also under discussion will be a companion piece to Al-Jazeera called  
Prisoner 345, inspired by the case of Sami Al-haj, an Al-Jazeera  
cameraman who was detained at the Guantanomo Bay prison for more than  
six years but released this past May after a 16-month hunger strike  
during which he was kept alive through force feeding. That piece is on  
display inside the gallery.