“I’ve copped a lot of online abuse calling me racist. It was definitely like a targeted attack because it all happened in about an hour. I was just smashed on social media. There was so much of it,” Cornish said. “I understand the gallery is protecting its reputation. But at the same time we shouldn’t be bullied into censoring work about genocide.”
Cornish said he agreed to take down one artwork of a 10 Chinese Yuan currency note featuring Mao Zedong’s face over which he had painted a batman mask. The artwork was captioned:“A shout out to the man that ate the bat in a Wuhan wet market that stopped the f---ing world (which probably didn’t happen).”
The ANU International Students’ Department did not respond to requests for comment,but in a Facebook post said it had asked the gallery to take down the Batman artwork after receiving “multiple reports regarding the harmful nature of the artwork.”
The group said it did not request the removal of the other artworks and “were ourselves surprised to hear the other two artworks were taken down”.
The exhibition featured 54 pieces of Cornish’s artwork and is billed as a commentary on “the rise of authoritarianism,the fall of liberties,the power of the people,and art’s role in inciting change”.
“I was a little bit naive to the racism Chinese people have been facing since COVID and it did offend a lot of Chinese students. So I kind of agreed,yes,we should take that one down,” Cornish said.