Art Exhibition Altered After Criticism

Curators of “Private and Public Pleasures,” a storefront exhibition dealing with issues of femininity, have covered portions of two of its three installations at the request of the Community Redevelopment Agency.

Cooke Sunoo, project manager for the Hollywood Redevelopment Project, which donated use of a vacant beauty school at 6522 Hollywood Blvd. for the artist-funded show, said he had concerns about the content of the exhibition, which is viewed through the building’s windows, because children walk by the building on their way to school. He told Lauren Lesko, the show’s curator, and Charles LaBelle, organizer of the roving exhibition program Nomadic Site, which produced the exhibit, to “deal with my concerns” by either altering or closing down the show.

In response, the curators chose to place a bag over part of Judy Bamber’s installation, a rubber sex toy, and drape a black cloth over the majority of Carol Ashley’s piece dealing with lesbian fantasy.

“The show was organized to talk about the issues of feminine repression,” said Lesko. “But it ended up that some of those issues got repressed themselves.”

After the show closes March 31, a second installment is scheduled to open April 3. Sunoo has requested written proposals to avoid another “uncomfortable situation.” But Lesko called it “very inappropriate” for the CRA to “act as a curatorial body.”