2 days ago
Edinburgh Fringe venue under fire for censoring artist's work
Summerhall bosses confirmed to The National that they "chose to remove" words and symbols from the artist's work after staff "deeply offended and distressed".
Jane Frere, who lives in Drumnadrochit in the Highlands, was commissioned to create giant pastel murals for a main thoroughfare at Summerhall in the capital back in 2017.
Initially inspired by Carole Cadwalladr's investigative journalism piece for The Observer, The Great British Brexit Robbery, Frere focused one 'protest wall' on Brexit and the other on Donald Trump.
READ MORE: I created artwork for Edinburgh Summerhall – then they censored it
Frere, 65, made updates to the walls in 2019 after Boris Johnson became prime minister and Steve Bannon created The Movement to promote right-wing populist groups in Europe.
Following the return of Trump to office, Frere sought to update the Trump wall again back in May this year to reflect growing concern over the rise of the far-right, as she felt humanity was 'in its darkest hour'.
She included anti-Nazi slogans in the update to the wall including a smudged swastika inside a stop sign and messages such as 'Stoppt Nazis' and 'I bite Nazis'.
A photo shows several parts of the art having been scrubbed out (Image: Jane Frere)
However, within 48 hours of her making the additions, they had been scrubbed out by Summerhall bosses, which Frere said happened without discussion.
Frere told The National she felt the venue has shown 'baffling disrespect' towards her as an artist.
Asked how she felt when the messages were removed, she said: "I felt a deep lack of respect for the work I have done over years in Summerhall, and a total lack of understanding.
'I did feel hurt. Nobody touches another artist's work, you just don't do that.
'If that happened to be behind glass, they wouldn't be able to deface it. If it was an oil painting, how would they have defaced that? You just don't touch another artist's work.
'I understand how provocative a swastika is, and I was willing to remove it completely after discussion. It was the lack of discussion that really got me and made me very angry.'
She went on: 'They keep on going on about it being an inclusive and safe place.
'By providing a safe place for artists as well as the public that means respect for the artists. They have shown baffling disrespect towards me as an artist."
READ MORE: Kate Forbes not barred from Summerhall, venue says
Frere told The National concerns had been raised about the swastika image by Summerhall CEO Steve Gough when she was painting it, to which Frere offered to tone it down, though did not agree to remove it entirely.
Within 48 hours, Gough sent an email to Frere – which has been seen by The National – saying he had come in to several complaints from staff and the public adding that the swastika and other references to Nazis had been removed.
On the Trump wall there are other phrases such as 'love not hate', 'pussy bites back', 'keep Trump off our NHS' and 'fascism is not pretty'.
Frere said it aims to capture 'the mood, the rage, the anxiety of the mass protest demonstrations that are taking place on the streets around the world today' – most notably around Trump, Palestine and the climate emergency.
Asked about the message behind the stop sign with the swastika in it, Frere said: '[The message was] never again, and where the hell are we heading?
'Why do I feel so impassioned and so enraged and so personally terrified of where are at here in the first quarter of the 21st century?
'We are talking about the rise of neo-Nazism, at least those of us who are engaged politically. It comes up in so much media. It's also terrifying that with this second return of a new Trump era, the far-right groups now are coming out of the woodwork and my fear is that it won't be long before those swastikas will be seen on the streets of Germany and Austria and countries where it is a forbidden symbol.
'By putting it up there I'm flagging it up as a reminder of potentially where we are at and what's to come. The reason why I put up a symbol that's so provocative and so disturbing is to wake us up because the one thing that seems to be the enemy of us all is a kind of complacency – whether that's on the genocide in Gaza or the world that is on fire with our seeming indifference to catastrophic climate change.'
Gough responded on Summerhall's behalf, confirming that the work had been altered.
He said: "Whilst on site it came to our attention that symbolism, imagery and copy associated with hate crime had been included in her piece, in this very public space. It is not possible to apply content warning in this space and so we were presented with a situation where it was necessary to ask Jane to remove the sensitive content."
Gough said while Frere edited the work, it was not changed enough to satisfy the venue.
"The symbols were then left in situ over the weekend, during which time we received multiple complaints from both members of the public and staff who were deeply offended and distressed by the depictions of both a swastika and an SS boot with the term WEISS inscribed above it."
He continued: "Upon arrival on the Monday morning to find that Jane had not in fact diminished the symbolism, and when presented with these multiple, concerning, complaints, we chose to remove the symbols and inform Jane of our actions, at which point Jane was given multiple opportunities to submit proposals to complete the artwork omitting the use of imagery, symbolism or copy associated with hate crime. Repeatedly, Jane submitted proposals with the inclusion of such depictions.
"I must state that the use of symbolism, imagery and copy associated with hate crime in our public spaces, where no content warning may be applied is firmly against our polices and curatorial perspective. This has been repeatedly iterated to Jane."
Summerhall said Frere is not restricted from applying for future commissions with the venue.
