An installation at Art Basel has been changed after one of its subjects said she never agreed to be part of it. The controversy reignites long-standing debates over representation in art, using images in the public record, and creating profit from trauma, writes Ej Dickson.
'Andrea Bowers is an artist best known for her socially conscious art works and installations, much of which explores women’s issues — her work has touched on such topics as the Steubenville rape case and reproductive-rights activism in the era before Roe v. Wade. So it was somewhat surprising on Tuesday to see writer Helen Donahue accuse Bowers of using her image and her testimony of surviving sexual assault without her permission in a piece of art.
Open Secret, Bowers’ new Art Basel installation, “documents the important cultural shifts represented by the #MeToo and Time’s Up international movements against sexual harassment and assault” by featuring the stories of 200 men accused in the #MeToo movement, according to a press release sent to Rolling Stone. But, as became painfully clear on the internet yesterday, some of the people who told those stories didn’t know they were going to be part of it.' ... Keep reading on Rolling Stone