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Queensland Art Gallery Stands By Decision To Feature 'F**k The Police' Piece

Queensland Art Gallery Stands By Decision To Feature 'F**k The Police' Piece

The piece comes as part of the gallery's ‘Full Face: Artists’ Helmets’ exhibition.

Jessica Lynch

Jessica Lynch

An artwork is currently on display at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane is causing controversy over its depiction of a police car on fire while featuring the abbreviation for 'f**k the police'.

The piece, created by an artist who goes by the name TextaQueen, is a helmet that has been decorated with the polarising image and 'FTP' phrase. It also has 'no more prisons end slavery' written on the back.

After an image of the work was posted to social media, many were quick to criticise the message, with Detective Sergeant Tony Flanders labelling it 'unacceptable'.

"GOMA Queensland Art Gallery has chosen to actually display a police helmet with a police car on fire with the letters FTP (stands for F**k The Police)," Flanders wrote. "This is a government art facility. You pay their wages."

Pauline Hanson also slammed the artwork, saying that the gallery is 'rightfully copping heat' over the piece.

"Police have a tough enough job dealing with the increasing hostility from pretentious criminals and those who think they're above the law," she wrote on Facebook.

"Don't for a second tell me this is art. It's childish and should never be displayed in a Government-funded art gallery. The Queensland premier should pull this display immediately.

"Next someone will tell me the artist received a grant for this rot!"

The piece comes as part of the gallery's 'Full Face: Artists' Helmets' exhibition, which asked fifteen artists to 'individualise a Biltwell Gringo ECE 'full face' helmet.

"The display was conceived in response to 'The Motorcycle: Design, Art, Desire', and includes work by a broad cross-section of practitioners," the website reads.

"Their artworks engage with the interwoven themes of art and design that 'The Motorcycle' explores, or with related social, political or environmental concerns.

"The artists have responded in a range of surprising, captivating and sometimes poignant ways. Several have emphasised the air of danger attached to motorbikes, or the communities connected with them."

"Some have made personal associations with the helmet or used it to foreground significant contemporary issues, while others still have riffed on the objects' place in popular culture.

"Together, these varied and inventive approaches provide a striking and thought-provoking counterpoint to the design focus of 'The Motorcycle' exhibition."

The artist, TextaQueen, often addresses controversial political, racial and gender issues through her artworks and refers to herself as an 'artist/superhero' on her Facebook page.

Featured Image Credit: Facebook

Topics: Police, Art, Australia