More D-words for Henson

Last night the photographer Bill Henson launched at the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery his first exhibition since, well, the other one - the one that inspired in Australia's most esteemed art critic, the aesthete and moral arbiter, Kevin Rudd, the assessment, after much chin-stroking, of ''revolting''. Barry Humphries took pause at the opening to tell The Diary how much he loved the show, and what a fan he was of Henson's work. He confessed to being disappointed that the Art Gallery of NSW director Edmund Capon had opened the show; he would have liked Rudd to have done that, ''because he's so perceptive in having described it as disgusting without actually having seen it''. It's fair to say that Henson's work, which often chronicles the transition of youth to adulthood - a time of complication, drama, and uncertainty - has also inspired responses in the culture at large that can be characterised in the same sort of way. In other words, his art is challenging. The question The Diary put to the art critic John McDonald was whether the controversy - and fear of prosecution - had influenced Henson and his latest work. ''I've spoken to him a few times and he says he is not going to change his style. But having said that, it's obviously something playing on his mind.'' McDonald said that while the show was in the same vein - ''figures and landscape'' - it was noticeably more ''discreet and diplomatic than the last one - a shoulder here, an elbow there. I think if he has any images he may perceive as more risque, they would be shown overseas, and he's probably made a shrewd decision. But I do think it's Rosetta Stone Korean an indictment of us as a society that we've worked negatively to influence a major artist this way.'' TOO MUCH SHOCK Being a shock jock is never having to say you're sorry - well, not really. A quick recap for latecomers. Yesterday David Oldfield, the former One Nation MP, who was axed in mysterious circumstances from 2GB's midnight-to-five shift in March, announced in an on-air apology that he had been suspended from 2UE for making ''inappropriate'' remarks. The remarks were in relation to the treatment of asylum seekers detained on Christmas Island. On Tuesday drive-time he said the electric fence should be turned on to ''fry'' anyone trying to escape. When an elderly listener phoned to protest, and said he should go back to 2GB with that kind of comment, he carried on in the same vein and said ''or barbecue them''. His apology, then, would have to be cracker - unreservedly repentant, that sort of thing - to kindle some goodwill, not least to reinflate what is a rapidly deflating broadcasting career. However, though he did say ''I sincerely apologise for my poor choice of language'', he couldn't resist preceding those words with ''While I maintain security measures should be tightened at our detention centres - and I stand by those comments '' Some comments, we humbly suggest, are not worth standing too close to, especially when they are such poor company. As he reflects on his not being allowed to say such things, Oldfield might ponder just what exactly is the point of being a shock jock. If so, he may well be onto something. Advertisement: Story continues below HEMP RANKS WEEDED THE Australian Electoral Commission's lack of imagination, or at least a person called ''Imagine'', threatens to scuttle attempts to legalise poor Mary Jane.

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