Children Are Not that Innocent Anymore.

Children Are Not that Innocent Anymore.

John Hobday, a Canadian Toronto-based art director and photographer is now having an exhibit at the Gale Smith Gallery in Ottawa where he assembles dramatic real-life-based scenarios with children.  The exhibit, which started on September 17th and will last only until October 10th is called The Playroom and its composed of a dozen photographs  of children reenacting historical events such as 9/11, torture scenes from Abu Ghraib, and our own Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean eating a seal’s heart. Useless to tell you that it caused quite a stirr.

Yet, Hobday claims that his whole intention is far from wanting to shock children but more to show the world that childhood is not as innocent and blinded from the outside world as people might think. “People always ask me if I’m setting out to shock people, and I’m not. I think the shock comes from people being forced to acknowledge that kids experience these events, or are witness to them.”

The exhibit points out to the fact that children are aware of what’s going out in the world because of the banalisation of this sort of events and their massive presence in our everyday life through television, newspapers and magazines. “The playroom is a metaphor for the impossibility of a protective space from the world,” Hobin says. “It’s a metaphor for all the things that kids experience in the world, and how it’s all in their heads. This is an exaggeration of how it might come out.” Don’t blame the player, blame the game he seems to proclaim.

I remember myself playing with the images I saw on TV, which was Dragonball Z or Speed Racer. I would grab a carboard box and pretend it was my own race car. These children will eventually put into their imaginary and play with these images of dramatic events seen on television and magazines without understanding the consequences of the act just as I never thought that ramming my cardboard box down the stairs could have broken my leg. During the photoshoot of the 9/11 scene, one of the children aged 4 or 5 at the time, jolted “It’s the plane that hit the towers”. He definitely was aware of the event. 

Despite his intentions, which could remain doubtful, Hobin say’s he’s been widely criticized and called everything from a pervert to someone with prejudice against twins! “I want people to acknowledge the fact that kids see the scariest things that are out there.” he says.

Nevertheless, some blog-users and some parents remain optimistic and open to such practices.  Richard Verreault’s 7-year-old son Justin posed for “A Boo Grave,” modelled after the Abu Ghraib prisoner torture at the hands of U.S. military police.Verreault said that his son, who is a professional child model, was undaunted by the morbid set. “It was work, and he was there to do the shoot,” he said. “He had a good time — and he got to eat a few lollipops.”