The Big Picture
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“Based on discussions with my legal counsel, I am going to court,” says Ed Burgess. The local artist contributed 13 “solvent transfers” with images from gay pornography to a show in the lobby of Bailiwick Arts Center, but a week before the show was scheduled to close, his artwork was taken down. Debra Hatchett, managing director for Bailiwick Repertory, also runs an art-placement agency called Anatomically Correct, and in early August she contracted with Burgess through the agency to exhibit his work at Bailiwick through September 23. But after the show was hung on August 22, says Hatchett, she began hearing from David Zak, executive director for Bailiwick, and artistic associate James Pelton, director of the company’s current production, Present Laughter: “They were getting worried the graphic images of male genitalia and other things in the work would be offensive to the more mainstream audiences coming to Bailiwick.” On September 16, Hatchett asked an assistant at Bailiwick to take down the show (which included work by two other artists) and replace it with a series of celebrity photographs. Two days later Burgess learned that his art had been removed, and now he insists that his contract has been violated.
Burgess met with Hatchett again in early August, this time showing her work that used a process called solvent transfer to lift images from gay porn and other sources. Hatchett liked what she saw, and on August 10, Burgess signed a contract with Anatomically Correct to exhibit his work in Bailiwick’s lobby. The agency hosted a reception for the show on August 27, the night Party opened, and Burgess remembers talking to his friend Ray Coronado that evening about his unhappiness with the board. “Ray was nervous about it,” says Burgess. “He wasn’t sure if he should resign or how he should go about it.” A day or two later Coronado submitted a letter of resignation. One reason for his decision, he says, was “the whole issue with Debra”; another was his belief that Bailiwick was unwilling to “adhere to the mandates of its board of directors.”
