Royal Academy defends showing of violent sex film

The head of the Royal Academy has defended a decision to show a graphic film portraying a woman victim of a violent sex act as part of its forthcoming exhibition, "Apocalypse".

The head of the Royal Academy has defended a decision to show a graphic film portraying a woman victim of a violent sex act as part of its forthcoming exhibition, "Apocalypse".

The exhibition, which features some of the more controversial art from around the world, is subtitled "Horror and Beauty". The film, Flex, by Chris Cunningham, falls into the first category and entrance into the room where it is showing is banned to under-18s.

In the clip, a woman with a bloodied face is shown experiencing various stages of ecstasy and extreme pain as her naked body writhes amid images of orgiastic sexual acts.

David Gordon, the Royal Academy's secretary, said yesterday that three senior Academicians - artists Diana Armfield, James Butler and Leonard McComb, a former keeper of the Royal Academy school - had complained, but he dismissed their protests, saying: "They haven't actually seen the exhibit, but never mind.

"It is not intended to outrage but it will, by the very nature of things, outrage some people," he said. "I wouldn't class it as a sex film. I would class it as a work of art that deals with love, sex, violence and abuse. I thought it was amazingly powerful."

Armfield said: "People who want to see these things should go to sex shops, not the academy."

Flex is not alone in arousing controversy in the follow-up to the academy's "Sensation" show. "Apocalypse" also includes a model of the Pope being crushed by a meteorite, a piece by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, a Roman Catholic. He insists the work is not intended to be controversial but is simply an expression of his "ambivalence to his religion".

"Apocalypse", presented in association with The Independent and The Independent on Sunday, opens at the Royal Academy on 23 September and runs until 15 December.