An anti-racist library exhibition featuring a reimagined union flag has been cancelled because the council fears it could inadvertently upset minority groups.
The show features artist Gil Mualem-Doron’s New Union Flag, made up using textiles from the UK’s diverse communities, alongside two new flags.
It has previously been displayed at the Tate Modern, Southbank Centre and Liverpool Museum – as well as Brighton Museum and bus stops across the city.
But the show organisers, who include Stand Up To Racism, were told it was being cancelled because it could “put visitors and their belongings at risk.”
A Stand Up to Racism spokesman said: “When a public library in a progressive city cannot host a flag celebrating diversity, we should be concerned. We all remember that it is silence, fear and complicity — and not hatred — that is often the greatest danger.”
Dr Mualem-Doron said: “Two years ago, Brighton and Hove City Council commissioned New Union Flag works for a citywide public art initiative in bus stops across the city.
“Now the same city refuses to show it in a public library.”
Council leader Bella Sankey said: “Our libraries have been recognised as Libraries of Sanctuary, something we are very proud of, and keen to maintain.
“Given the fears that minority communities have expressed to me in recent weeks and months, there are particular concerns that displaying national flags could be taken out of their artistic context.
“Customers who do not or cannot read the signage could see the artwork of the flags as a statement by the library and therefore the council.
“As council buildings, our libraries need to remain neutral spaces and a safe space for all our customers.”
And sadly this why we have lost the plot. Can’t say boo without upsetting somebody.
Leave the national flag alone.
How small must people’s lives be that a bit of art upsets them. Pathetic.
As someone who sort of views these sorts of events with quiet curiosity it’s often what isn’t reported in the media which makes it difficult to understand what is going on here.
For there to be an anti racist Union Jack designed surely the artist is coming from the starting point that the Union Jack is a racist flag.
The article doesn’t state which minority groups may be upset by the reimagined flag? We have completely lost the plot when it comes to our country flags here, be it The Union flag or the St George’s cross.
No other country seems to have created the same hysteria over a flag than some groups in England. No one complains about the Saltire or the Y Ddraig Goch being flown in Scotland and Wales. No one ever complains about the various county flags being flown in Sussex. It is very particularly around the St George and the Union Flag.
Who is offended by it and why? The lack of clarity makes the situation worse and it’s what is feeding societal divides across the country.
No one should have the right to make us ashamed of our national flag. People have died for it and in other countries they are also dying to defend their country, their flag and their national identity. No one has to live here. This country is by no means perfect and if anyone doesn’t like it there are 194 other countries to choose from. I for one am sick of people telling us our flag and country is racist and what we should think.
With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably.
“displaying national flags could be taken out of their artistic context… Customers who do not or cannot read the signage could see the artwork of the flags as a statement by the library and therefore the council.”
Surely this applies to such a vast swathe of anything remotely cultural that it cannot be consistently enforced as a council position?
Isn’t the whole point of this exhibition that it isn’t some mindless bigots affixing the cheap plastic union jack to a lamppost, but a work of cultural expression highlighting and celebrating the diversity of the city and country?
If you think some people may not see that then spend some time engaging with those communities rather than imagining their offense.
It’s shocking enough that someone seeks to tamper with our national flag but even more shocking that BHCC wasted taxpayer’s money to commission them to do it! How much did this cost ?
Nothing against the artist whose job it is to shock and call it art but what delicious irony their work is too controversial to display in the city which wasted public money on it.
It’s a flag, a piece of fabric with a particular pattern/design isn’t and never will be inherently racist a small minority using it as a tool for racism is the problem. It’s a small minority that might be upset.
The council and infact the government need to stop pandering to the minority and do the job that the majority voted them in for……. Stop wasting time and money because a small percentage shout the loudest while the rest of the population cracks on with life……