Saturday, February 09, 2008

When people think art is rubbish

I don't mean that in a critical sense, when an artist's work might be considered conceptually weak or badly executed. I don't mean it in a British tabloid headlines manner either, in the way Tracy Emin's bed or Damien Hirst's pickled animals might have been regarded as pretentious crap or 'just not art'.

I mean that ghastly real-life incident when a piece of artwork in a gallery really is mistaken for a pile of old rubbish, and the cleaners are instructed to get rid of it quickly, before the guests arrive for the private view.

Well, thank goodness for a none too speedy disposal of the rubbish into the incinerator, and the trusty Hoover... at least that gave a chance to empty out the vacuum cleaner contents and retrieve the artwork from amongst the 'real' rubbish. Then it was quickly replaced in the gallery before any lasting damage was done and no-one was any the wiser. A helpful new addition to the piece since then was a carefully delineated rectangle of white tape around the work, so everyone knows it's art and not rubbish this time. It's all a question of interpretation, isn't it!!

I'm back at work now and the 'rubbish' tale doing the rounds was the highlight of the day. And thank you for all your nice comments, I'm feeling much better at last, which will hopefully continue until I'm back to normal again. I do wish I'd washed my coffee stuff up before I was ill though, as it's sprouted a healthy greenish-grey mould culture since I've been off, but that's life. I liked that mug too.....

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

britney spears art rubbish

http://www.send2press.com/newswire/2008-02-0208-002.shtml

deb said...

It's super good to have you back. Love the rubbish story. Don't know if I've mentioned that my first husband used to do installation art. Weird stuff. One piece used large, clear bags of human hair.

Claire said...

Thanks Deb! And bags of human hair would have probably have ended up in the bins that day too (would like to have seen the one you mention though). Some people are too tidy for their own good sometimes.

Katy Swift said...

Yay!!! You're back!!! As for the mug. Green, hairy stuff today, next miracle, wonder drug tomorrow.

Can you be too tidy? Oh dear. Suspect I am ;)

Claire said...

Hottie, I'm afraid I chucked it away eventually, after wondering whether I could sterilise it enough to forget the green furry stuff. Not very eco-friendly, am I? Still, maybe the sadness at getting rid of the mug will me make me tidier next time... but probably not, after all these years.

Claire said...

Oh yes, and I think the gallery-tidying was a management thing.