Cartoons: imagery and controversy

In March 2006 Otago Polytechnic School of Art held a seminar on the conflicts around the publication by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten of cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammad. A lecturer in Design Studies was invited to speak from a Middle Eastern perspective and a lecturer in Art Theory & History at the School of Art was invited to respond from a Western perspective. The conflict that provoked this discussion arose from a surprisingly naïve request for an illustrator to illustrate a book explaining the Muslim faith to Danish children. The fact that illustrators were reluctant to work on this project was publicised and characterised as `self-censorship¿ by Flemming Rose of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. He responded by commissioning artists to create images which did represent Mohammad on the grounds that this would enable the newspaper to demonstrate that it stood for the principles of freedom of speech. The cartoons were published in Denmark and slowly disseminated throughout the rest of the world in various contexts and with various cautionary or inflammatory editorial comments added. Responses included demonstrations and, in situations where demonstrating was in itself a political act, corresponding violence broke out.