turner

i am a bit of an art fag.
there are few things i like better than to go to a gallery, wander around, stop, contemplate and be mesmerised by a piece of art that is either so beautiful it takes the breath away or so challenging it forces you to think, to ponder and to wonder. there have been exhibitions i have been to that have all been like that.
there are art spaces i go to just because that are beautiful places to be in. the whitechapel art gallery, the tate modern, the tate britain, white cube, flowers east and many others.
when the two come together it is almost a religious experience. i can think of picasso and matisse at the tate modern, mapplethorpe at the hayward gallery, gormley at the white cube, lichtenstein at the hayward, pretty much anything i saw that was photographic at the hamilton gallery... and there have been many others.
anyway i like modern art.
i like the tate britain.
i have spent many a happy hour looking at the turner prize in years gone by.
except there has been a problem with the turner prize - as each year has gone by i have enjoyed it less and less. the art seems less "art" and more commercial junk making.
this years has been the worst one i have been to.
the winner, jeremy deller, presents the viewer with a dull documentary centred around texas. this is complemented with some photos he has taken of memorial plaques he has had erected.
kutlug ataman, has a video installation of interviews of people who claim to be reincarnated. the position of the videos makes for an interesting view, but what is on view is not at all interesting.
landlands and bell, produce a mix of items which centre around afghanistan and the UN's involvement. some of it is interesting, none of it is fully engaging. the stills of the various official signs soon pales. the video installation of osama bin laden's house is both trite and poorly done, it becomes interactive because, you the viewer can control the view and route through the house.
yinka shonibare, who to my mind should have won it (but that damns with very feint praise) produces his usual signature colourful cloth constructions - but this time not only does he have a mannequin that is done out in the garb but he also has the ubiquitous video installation. this is of a courtly dance, all the courtiers are attired in the colourful cloth garb so beloved of shonibare. the dance is very formal, but also mechanical and the dancers jolt and jerk around. taking the familiar style of courtly dances and adding a new dimension (part of this is the fact that they manage to overact as they dance). the video is on a constant loop and the performers seem to go forward and then go back over what they have done again. this combined with the stagey arty gives a sense of being slightly outside reality.

you want to know what i feel when i walk out of the exhibition into some of the other halls in the tate britain, where the walls are decorated with art in which you can see the artist has not only put thought, but they have put effort, they have put passion and they have put skill into what they have done and what they have created. the feeling i get is a little close to despair that modern art has sunk so low, that some how we have to "award" and "reward" work that is little more than bad documentary, that seems to have little creative thought behind it other than one clever(dick) idea.

you know it is bad when you know you could have done all of it yourself and without too much trouble.
maybe i should just put my money where my mouth is and win the turner prize ? not next year but perhaps in a couple of years. trust me if you have seen what they had there this year you would have to be bad not to win.

i am turning into angry from tunbridge wells