The winner of the Turner Prize has been announced. First, I should say I think the Turner Prize is great and I like the idea of it. And some of the art of it. But then at the same time, so much of it is a load of bollocks. I mean, Mark Wallinger's work was described thus: "In this meditative yet disquieting work, notions of national memory and allegory converge to continue Wallinger's examination of the themes of identity and representation."
As you do when you dress as a bear and wander around a gallery.
I wish I was British. Then I'd definitely be trying to enter with whatever randomness I could come up with. For example, this film from last night with the rain...
...which I think can safely be interpreted as our need to allow ourselves to occasional regress to our childhood states of enjoyment and pleasure in simplicity. I shall call it "Regression Verse 5." The shortness of the film is indicative of the shortness of our lives, and thus the need to make sure we are able to find enjoyment in every possible moment.
My other idea is a single solitary stick in a huge room with a tv with blaring static only at one end, which will represent the alienation and disquietening aloneness of the clinical, technological, meaningless 21st century.
And if the judges don't like it, I can simply smack them with the stick. In an art fashion.
For those interested, there is also the Turnip Prize.
6 comments:
Hi Della, I like the bear a lot. It's comical, perhaps farcical, but also absorbing.
What is a man in bear suit doing in a gallery? What is he trying to say? Some may say he's taking the piss, I get the feeling he's exploring something else. I feel for the man in the suit. That's all.
For some reason, it just makes me think of the guy in the gorilla suit in Carry On Up the Jungle, which amuses me...
So you feel the humour, but there's also something manic about the whole thing isn't there?
I suppose... But then I kind of also don't see why it has more art value than any other variety of similar work, in some respects.
I think it has value because it's original and conveys energy. Also, It's performed as art, it's not been done before as art, so it compels the spectator to ask: why is it considered art? At the very least, it's got your mind ticking over. you can be dismissive but you won't forget the man in the bear suit in the gallery, and I'll guarantee you this, many years on, you'll think about it again. honest, hand on heart.
I think this kind of thing has been done before. I saw something on SBS with a guy doing the gallery wandering in Austria a number of years ago. Sans bear suit, though.
Honest, hand on heart, I'd kind of forgotten entirely about it until I read what I'd written about it. But not all art sticks in your mind, I suppose.
Post a Comment