When I grow up I'm going to be a famous artist and make loads of money - in the mean time I clean two nights a week at a solicitors office to help eke out the meagre grant. At said solicitors, my 'boss' commissioned a local artist to produce some paintings which were completed and hung around the building in time for for an open evening - they had recently expanded and wanted to drum up business. Above left, is a sample of one of those paintings (again, B.M. would be proud).I stood before them speechless (there's a first) - not due to their intrigue or beauty but for being so god damn awful.
'Do you like them' said 'boss'.
'They contain such detail' is all I could reply.
Out of earshot of 'boss', the receptionist asked 'DO you like them?' and united in honesty by our lowly status ( mine more than hers because I clean bogs) I said 'No, there horrendous', 'look on the bright side' I added, 'at least the one in reception hangs BEHIND your head'.
During opening night and maybe in an effort to elevate himself in the ranks of sophistication, 'boss' was overheard to tell someone 'I collect art you know' and led the man over to one of his pride and joys. I don't know what the chaps reaction to them was, this wasn't a serious art lovers audience after all. Maybe he had no opinion of them, or worse, maybe he liked them too.
Some interesting issues arose from all of this. Should the public be subjected to anothers choice of art, be it public, community, corporate, site specific, land art etc...
You could argue 'live and let live' or the fact that we already face a daily bombardment of imagery through advertising - what difference does a few paintings make?.
Had the the potential client disliked the work as much as I did would it have tainted his view of 'bosses' company?
How much of art is propaganda ?
Is ALL art propaganda ?
If the audience on opening night HAD been gallery goers how far up the sophistication ladder would 'boss' be then.
At the opening as I wandered amongst the crowd I admit I felt a tad smug at my dislike of the paintings - because I know better - and my rank up that ladder is momentarily higher than 'bosses'. And that's when I felt the twinges of pretentiousness that I ultimately fight against and yet quietly embrace. And that's when I got back to cleaning the toilets.
don't you just hate it when people in these big businesses just want any old crap piece of art in there building as it makes them look cultured.yeah about as cultured as mould lol.
ReplyDeleteSome things you see are just so ugly and have no life to them.Money isn't everything though aswel.They cant think that if they spend alot of money on a piece of artwork that it is necessarily good.I don't think these companies have the guts to put in something that could make an impact on the viwer or even make them think about things.They just want sculptures that look like giant paperweights
Giant paperweights - I like that. I think we have to patronise the corporate world in their selecton of art for they 'know no better'.Their choice of art is for propaganda use, not for the love of the piece.
ReplyDeleteI would be really interested to hear what you wanted to say about the Hirst show. Why censor yourself?
ReplyDeleteI smiled to myself about your honesty (I often do) there on contradicting yourself about the things we would push against & yet sometimes find ourselves being part of. As Gary says: 'why censor yourself?', I think that's important as the biggest problem I think people are finding is being aware that what they write on these blogs is going to be viewed & judged. I think this might be changing slightly as we get more used to them, people are beginning to discuss things more openly and offer thoughts to each other.
ReplyDeleteJ x
Try to mix it up a bit. The best moments in these blogs are when someone gets lost in personal reflection, musings on what it is all about (theory) thoughts on where their work could go and how an audience might be manipulated or respond. Somehow the interweaving is more akin to how we think anyway.
ReplyDelete