The mother of a student whose work has been banned by a prestigious West Australian arts school for depicting an underage girl and accused of enticing paedophilia has slammed the decision.
Vicky Manley described the decision by John Curtin College of the Arts as "ridiculous" and claimed the school had made the wrong call.
"The principal claims that my daughter depicts an underage girl, this is not the case," she said in an email to Fairfax Media.
"My daughter accessed several images, as well as her imagination to create the artwork...It is not an actual portrait of the young girl that the principal is referring to. If it were then it would have been titled as such."
Ms Manley said her daughter was prepared to fight the decision under curriculum council guidelines once she gathered evidence to prove the portrait was not the girl the college claimed.
"The teachers saw her artwork in the making for months. They selected it for the exhibition. The images my daughter accessed to help create it were all with permission from all parties.
"My daughter is currently accessing curriculum council policy...she wishes to mount her argument to the principal once she has gathered appropriate sources.
"She has been very mature and says she will respect the process and final decision only when it can be adequately proven to her that her work is inappropriate."
The author of the petition on change.org under the pseudonym "Free to express", said students were being censored and called on the college to let the two students' artwork feature in the end-of-year exhibition.
"Free to express" also claimed one students' work was taken down without notice because it would promote paedophilia, while another student was told her work would be turned to face the wall during school tours.
College principal Mark Mackay claimed one of the paintings could not be displayed because he bellieved it depicts a naked teenage girl who could be identified clearly.
He said the other artwork depicted two people kissing and would be removed from exhibition during performances of shows such as The Little Mermaid and Pinocchio because the offending art could seen by children as young as five.
The college's events timetable shows, however, that the Little Mermaid and Pinocchio will be shown over two days at the end of October while the visual arts exhibition will run on November 4 and November 7 for two hours a day.
Mr Mackay also said he had invited the parents of the artist to the school to explain his decision to them, which was not a case of art censorship but rather made "purely with the protection of children in mind".
The petition on change.org also claimed the decision to ban the two artworks demonstrated female sexuality in art was still shunned.
"Both of these student's images were intended to be confronting and make a social comment on the relevant issues in society," the petition reads.
"No breasts or genitalia was shown yet they were still deemed unacceptable and excluded from the exhibition, showing that over 100 years on the female body and female sexuality is still shunned in art.
"Unfortunately both these images were deemed 'inappropriate' because one depicted two girls in what appears to be a romantic embrace and also because of the so called 'inappropriate nudity' and 'sexualisation' of young girls, which students were told would promote paedophilia."
The petition, which (at the time of publishing) had 680 signatures, also claimed one student was told her work would "encourage the male gaze".
Mr Mackay said the claims by the petition statement were untrue.
College board chairman Robin Pascoe is the senior lecturer of arts and drama education at Murdoch University and said if the claims made on the website were true, it would be an issue the school board would investigate.
"This is all news to me I'm afraid at the moment," he said.
"This would certainly be an issue that would be discussed at the board and if it were referred to the board, it would be an issue that would be further discussed.
"Parents or students could refer it to the board but I would also expect the principal would draw a matter like this to the attention of the board."
Mr Mackay said he would happily discuss his decision with the board.
