I am about to head out to the city's 'art zone' - an industrial estate on the north-east outskirts that in recent years has become heavily colonised by studios and galleries (and, increasingly of late, by trendy boutiques, coffee-shops, and restaurants) - for an afternoon/early evening of 'culture'..... followed by some subsidised drinking!
The prospect does occasion a certain trepidation. Art today has surely become more elitist than at any time in history, the creators forming closed, incestuous cliques, cultivating a wilful obscurity in their work. These days, you almost always seem to get a mini-essay accompanying each work to 'explain' it, since there would be no chance that Joe Public would 'get it' otherwise. Now, I like some modern art; and I try to be open to all of it; and I do, in fact, have a few friends in the art community here. But gawd, it's hard work sometimes.
Last time I was up in the 'art zone' a few months ago, I found myself being interviewed for one of the local radio stations about one of these artist friends. Trouble was, I hadn't been able to find the piece he was showing, so I floundered rather. I don't think they broadcast that.
So, yes, I face my expedition to the north-east with enthusiasm tempered with a certain bewilderment - and an anxiety that someone may ask me to say whether I like something, or, worse, whether I understand it. Let's hope not.
This was a feeling amusingly captured by Brad Roberts of the Crash Test Dummies (whatever happened to them??) on his song 'When I go out with artists', which I was listening to just the other day. I've always particularly cherished this couplet, a great near-rhyme (deliberate bad rhyme):
If I were David Byrne
I'd go to galleries and not be too concerned
Quite.
3 comments:
LOL... you wrote about the art thing "before" walking it?
Well, do we get a post describing the actual experience? preferably containing amusing tidbits of sights scene along the way? But no pressure to explain what those scenes mean - we'll decipher them on our own. (Including the warped plastic.)
No, I really didn't see anything out there yesterday worth commenting on.
I wouldn't go quite so far as my friend David - who exclaimed,"The trouble with art in this country is that it's ALL shit!", and headed straight for the bar - but I fear a very high percentage of it is shit; and even the stuff that's OK is still usually rather obvious and derivative.
There's a problem out there in the 'zone' too, that the art is competing with the surroundings, and usually losing hands down. The bauhaus architecture of the factory units, the elaborate ducting, even the broken windows and the rusty ironwork, are almost always far more fascinating and beautiful to me than anything in the galleries.
aah! so buildings fascinated you, too!
I loved the grills underfoot exposing the piping with all the valves.
but even that is an artistic choice - someone chose not to cover it up during renovation.
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