Thursday, August 17, 2006
Conceptual Art
Today was grey from the beginning with little promise of anything but rain. My companion and I met the downpour in the middle of the Cotswalds, having decided to get a walk in before I moved on. We were soaked within minutes.
"I stayed up to watch the end of that program about Denmark," I said as we squelched along, "there was an artist who made meatballs out of ground meat, his own blood, and then cooked it in fat sucked out of his own body."
"See, to me that's just bollocks."
"The guy presenting it said that too, he got really shirty saying 'If I took this glass and smashed it across your face in front of all these people I could say that was art!'"
"Yeah, I agree with that," replied the soggy mass to my right. The direction of the conversation could have been predicted a mile off, and no one's open for conversion when they're getting drenched. But I was in a fighting mood.
"Well, why was it bollocks?"
"Because it didn't do anything, it was of no use to anyone and it probably cost somebody a huge amount of money, possibly tax payers who had no interest in it!"
"It made you think, though, didn't it? The whole idea was to get people to think about how we consume. The artist was a vegetarian and so would he be a vegetarian still if he ate... himself? It got you thinking, whatever your opinion was, so it worked."
This got brushed aside and the walk continued in silence for about five minutes. Conversation resumed but the subject was avoided. The rain waned, not that we could have gotten any wetter by the time it did. Sheep bleated somewhere in the distance. Looking ahead I could see that the path we were following had obviously been maintained by human hands, mowed down slightly lower than the grass either side of it. I asked who took care of these national walk areas.
"Dunno," he said with a shrug, "I imagine some official, hired, maintainence, government, professional, person, thing..."
"Paid by the government?"
"More'n likely."
"Taxes, then?"
"Mmmm."
"There's probably only a few people who enjoy this sort of thing, walking and that, on a regular basis. Good that it's there though, for them that wants it."
My companion agreed, not seeing where I was taking this. Sensing his guard was down, I moved in for the kill...
"Sounds like conceptual art, to me."
"I stayed up to watch the end of that program about Denmark," I said as we squelched along, "there was an artist who made meatballs out of ground meat, his own blood, and then cooked it in fat sucked out of his own body."
"See, to me that's just bollocks."
"The guy presenting it said that too, he got really shirty saying 'If I took this glass and smashed it across your face in front of all these people I could say that was art!'"
"Yeah, I agree with that," replied the soggy mass to my right. The direction of the conversation could have been predicted a mile off, and no one's open for conversion when they're getting drenched. But I was in a fighting mood.
"Well, why was it bollocks?"
"Because it didn't do anything, it was of no use to anyone and it probably cost somebody a huge amount of money, possibly tax payers who had no interest in it!"
"It made you think, though, didn't it? The whole idea was to get people to think about how we consume. The artist was a vegetarian and so would he be a vegetarian still if he ate... himself? It got you thinking, whatever your opinion was, so it worked."
This got brushed aside and the walk continued in silence for about five minutes. Conversation resumed but the subject was avoided. The rain waned, not that we could have gotten any wetter by the time it did. Sheep bleated somewhere in the distance. Looking ahead I could see that the path we were following had obviously been maintained by human hands, mowed down slightly lower than the grass either side of it. I asked who took care of these national walk areas.
"Dunno," he said with a shrug, "I imagine some official, hired, maintainence, government, professional, person, thing..."
"Paid by the government?"
"More'n likely."
"Taxes, then?"
"Mmmm."
"There's probably only a few people who enjoy this sort of thing, walking and that, on a regular basis. Good that it's there though, for them that wants it."
My companion agreed, not seeing where I was taking this. Sensing his guard was down, I moved in for the kill...
"Sounds like conceptual art, to me."
# posted by Kielty @ 9:11 AM 
