December 05, 2005
But is it art?
I’ve had questions of art on the brain lately. We’ve been putting together an advent art installation at St Andrew’s on The Terrace, and the past week I’ve been working with paper-mache and chicken wire, been throwing lines over the beams, up by the ceiling of the church, been hunting around shops for a black baby doll, and wrapping condoms up in gold ribbons.
Recently at Spirited Conversations, Jo Randerson talked about how she believes that art is inherently marginal. If it doesn’t challenge, if it doesn’t provoke a reaction, if it isn’t a minority view, it’s not art. At least, I think that’s what she was saying. It’s an interesting idea, though I’m not entirely sure I agree. I love art that provokes, and stirs me up... but I’m actually a bit conservative in my tastes. If it’s too weird and postmodern.
Martin Creed, the acclaimed 2001 winner of The Turner Prize for new art, ‘created' an empty room where the lights would go off and on every five seconds appropriately titled, ‘Lights Going On and Off”. Creed has also works titled 'a doorstop fixed to a floor to let a door open only 45 degrees' and ‘a sheet of A4 paper crumpled into a ball'. You get the idea. Is it art?
Xiao Yu grafted the head of a human foetus onto the body of a bird in his artwork “Ruan”.
I want art to be creative, not just controversial. I guess I still hold onto the idea that you have to show you can keep to the rules before you break them. And that... it’s not art just cos you say it is. You have to work to make it art. A toilet is just a toilet, even if you say it’s art. You have to work, change it, to make it art.
Yu’s human-bird creation combines the parts in an original and startling way. It is provocative, and has a haunting beauty, despite being deeply disturbing. Is it art? I think so... whether it is morally right is another question.
If you come along to St Andrew’s you will find a black baby in a manger, underneath a tree hung with red ribbons... the little town of Bethlehem under siege... a mother and baby suspended from the ceiling... Mary giving birth to a tree... Is it art? You’ll have to come along and find out for yourself. I’m just hoping that the condoms on the Christmas tree won’t cause the kind of reaction that Bette has been coping with on the L word. Don’t you love that show? Monday is my favourite day of the week.
