Two shows withdrawn from M1 Singapore Fringe Festival for ‘excessive nudity’
The M1 Singapore Fringe Festival has withdrawn two shows from the upcoming festival from 4-15 January 2017 after the Info-communications Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA) said they contained “excessive nudity”.
IMDA’s assessment deemed that both Ming Poon’s ‘Undressing Room’ and Thea Fitz-James’ ‘Naked Ladies’ “exceeded the R18 rating under the Arts Entertainment Classification Code (AEC)”, said organisers in a statement on Monday (5 Dec).
The organisers said, “While the artists have expressed their willingness to amend their performances to meet IMDA’s classification requirements, the Festival believes that any adjustments and abridgments to the art works to fit these guidelines will result in significant changes that will affect the original artistic intent. “
Concerns were first raised online via an anonymously written blog post on 22 November. The blog author said the festival was promoting “pornography disguised as art”.
Undressing Room involves the performer and an audience participant completely undressing each other in private. Naked Ladies is described as a “performance lecture about the history of the naked female body in performance” where Fitz-James performs in the nude.
The artists were willing to amend the two performances to meet classification guidelines, but the festival believed that “any adjustments and abridgments to the art works to fit these guidelines will result in significant changes that will affect the original artistic intent”.
Organisers also added, “Sadly, these works have been judged based on the preconception that nudity equates to pornography. The unfortunate irony of IMDA’s assessment of the works having ‘excessive nudity’ is that both works actually make deliberate attempts to distinguish nudity from sexualised connotations. Ultimately, the licensing process—along with the online furore surrounding these works—deems that society at present is not ready for these cutting-edge, intelligent works.”
IMDA drew flak from arts group Arts Engage for censoring the shows, with the arts group posting a letter online on 30 Nov saying that “IMDA must regulate without resorting to moral policing”.
IMDA responded to Arts Engage in a statement on 1 December saying, “Naked Ladies includes a scene where the performer inserts her finger into her vagina and then into her mouth. Undressing Room involves the performer and an audience-participant completely undressing and then touching each other. Disallowing these scenes can hardly be considered retrograde moral policing; it is an objective application of existing guidelines.”
Those who purchased tickets to the two performances will be given full refunds.
