Australia Arts Council grants ‘ideologically driven’: IPA

A ‘bum puppeteer’ and ‘bowel movement’ poet are among those awarded $80,000 in arts grants, sparking questions over why taxpayers are funding “identity politics”.

A queer cabaret artist who has created a “bum puppet” featuring a drawing of the PM on her posterior, and a Chinese Australian poet who writes on toilet rolls about bodily fluids have been given prestigious taxpayer fellowships worth $80,000.

The latest round of the Australia Council for the Arts scholarships for eight artists has drawn flak from the Institute of Public Affairs, who say the public should not have to fund “identity politics” and “anti-Australian” performances.

Cabaret performer Sarah Ward, whose character Yana Alana lays on her side on stage with the face of the PM Scott Morrison on her bottom, says her puppet character is called “Scat Morrison”.

She says she’s happy to “turn politicians who are up their arses into bum puppets”.

Queer cabaret performer Sarah Ward has turned her bum into (AAP Image/Quentin Jones)

Yu Ouyang, who receives his $80,000 for his work in literature, says he is an experimentalist” and that “poetry always accompanies bowel movements, there is a mysterious connection between the two”. He also says white people don’t click “like” for Asian artists as there is a “latent racism”.

“Bowel movements are perhaps innately connected to the act of creative writing,” Mr Ouyang told an interviewer recently.

“If your bowels refuse to move, your mind is full of shit and you look shitty. While we pay so much attention to our appearances these days, our bowels, unmoved for days, are clogged up, like the world we live in today, clogged up with the shit of climate change.”

Chinese Australian poet Ouyang Yu.

Another artist Kate Just uses knitting to question histories of “female and queer representation” and “crafting feminist representations of the body”.

The awards, which are paid over two years, are open to established artists, and “support creative activity and professional development”.

IPA Foundations of Western Civilisation Program director Bella d’Abrera said the artists were perfectly entitled to pursue their own political and agendas, but it should not be on the taxpayer’s dime.

She said the Canberra based bureaucratic Arts Council is run at arm’s length by the arts community elite which is answerable to no-one and solely interested in pushing identity politics.

Dr Bella d’Abrera is the director of the Foundations of Western Civilisation Program at the Institute of Public Affairs. Picture: Nigel Welch

“The Minister of the Arts should control funding, not unelected bureaucrats,” she said.

“This is pure politics masquerading as the arts.

“This type of funding shows that taxpayers are not getting value for money. What they are paying for is self-indulgent, politically shallow and ideologically driven content which divides the community rather than unites it.”

“It is clear from the Council’s 2020 strategy that unless Australian artists are prepared to play the political game and subscribe to identity politics, they will not see a cent between now and 2050.”

Other recipients of the fellowship money include a core member of the art collective Hissy Fit, a “queer feminist collaboration”, who tweets on politics, praising Labor Leader Anthony Albanese and retweeting material saying that former Minister Christian Porter was a “creepier piece of garbage”.

“You can’t have it both ways,” Ms d’Abrera said.

“You can’t criticise the Coalition and then take $80,000 from it. If these recipients were truly principled, they would not take money from the Coalition.”

Yana Alana is the stage persona of Sarah Ward.

The cabaret artist receives $80,000 in funding.

Other artists given the fellowships say they work to raise awareness on climate change in the Pacific, while another recipient was an Ethiopian reggae “Ethio-pop” musician.

In response to the criticism, spokeswoman for the Australia Council for the Arts said in a statement that the fellowships were assessed in a competitive process by industry experts, according to published criteria.

“The Australia Council has a statutory function to uphold and promote freedom of expression in the arts, to promote community participation in the arts, and support Australian arts practice that reflects the diversity of Australia,” the statement read.

“The Fellowships reflect the diversity and depth of Australian artistic and creative talent and the vibrancy of contemporary Australia.”

The recipients are required to complete a grant report on completion of their projects but these are not made public.