From ebay to the Hayward / red faces in Beijing (Friday 29 August 2008)
compiled by Steven Murray
'Attic art' gets presigious outing
At the Hayward Gallery on the South Bank, London, an exhibition of items purchased on ebay over a period of ten days this year opened yesterday. The show consists of 103 items of household art(efacts), sculptures and paintings sourced on ebay at a total cost of £5,000. These pieces of art are considered worthy enough to be featured in a major London show, though they do coincidentally include works by more well known artists Damian Hirst and Tom of Finland.
All the works were collected by the gallery's curator, Tom Morton, including paintings by mostly annonymous and amateur artists. The collection includes a lego bust of Freddie Mercury and a My Little Pony with a gothic makeover.
Whether these items will be seen as genuine ‘intentional’ art(efacts) is subjective, and the old argument of ‘what is art’ will most definitely rear its head again - if art objects are removed from people's homes and placed in a public gallery, does this make them 'credible' art? Expect great curiousity amongst the art-world critics and art lovers.
Myra Hindley pops up at Olympics
Myra Hindley still has the capability to offend the public even if it is six years since her death from cancer in 2002 .The posthumous act of current relevance occured after the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics: guests and officials were fuming when an image of the convicted Moors murderer was screened at the official handing-over party in downtown Beijing. The party marked the start of London's Olympics, 2012, and guests included Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The Myra Hindley image, which was created by British artist Marcus Harvey using children's handprints, was shown as part of a video montage to promote tourism in London. Officials in Downing Street were said to be deeply embarrassed and annoyed at what many people saw as unsuitable footage, which alledgedly sullied Britain’s name and reputation. Harvey had caused a lot of anger and controversey in 1995, when the painting was first shown.
(An article in the autumn issue of Circa, due out early next week, looks at the London Olympics in terms of its impact on the arts, particularly in Northern Ireland; in that context, it is very apt that art should have caused trouble at the Olympics, as it looks as though the Olympics are going to cause a lot of trouble for art. - Ed)
Most recent news items:
• Burden takes to the skies / art spurs bill on animal welfare (Tuesday 26 August 2008)
• Damian Hirst goes straight to Sothebys / Auschwitz artists finds unusual assitanced (Monday 25 August 2008)
• Artist simulates war crimes / the flight of the turd (Thursday 21 August 2008)
• Art strike proposed for NI / RDS results (Thursday 14 August 2008)
For a full list of news items, click here.
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News item 603
I have to say I agree with Circa. I have been working on a projec...
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The idea of exhibiting a group of objects bought on eBay, though ...
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It'd be interesting to see how many visitors attended the gallery...
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re. Comment 2 - most people who get turned down for grants have t...
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'sour grapes aside, what are culture ireland up to?' i think we n...
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hang on a minute... surely the feller who won the prize at art st...
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As someone who received a grant from Culture Ireland this year, f...
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try and make work that doesn't topple over in future!...
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| Responses so far |
| Comment 1 |
The idea of exhibiting a group of objects bought on eBay,
though frivolous and superficial, is art as concept.
However, the objects have no real importance and cease to
exist if this is the case. If the idea of exhibiting work
bought in a similar vein is repeated the 'eBay concept'
becomes void- "not art." So in a sense it will inevitably
become a recyclable idea.
Posted by James Merrigan on Sat Aug 30 07:17:20 2008
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