Sump Oil

[dellzeqq]

OK, I want to fill a white room (which must have a black ceiling) with pineapple chunks, and invite visitors to swim through the chunks, from a door at ground level to a door about 20 metres above. At the end, they get some gammon to take home, but they have to take it home stuffed down their pants. Wow. I am an artist. Give me some money.

do it and see if anybody comes. They may and they may not. People have been marvelling at 20/50 for two decades. If your pineapple chunks do as well I'll be very impressed.

 

[dellzeqq]

I do hope he didn't use "used" sump oil. That stuff can contain real nasties (H&S wise). The stench might be telling you something.....

Very thin layers of oil on water - now that's art (and science)

see reference to H+S above.

 

[dellzeqq]

It's a bit like Anish Kapoor stuff (and others) in that it's pleasing to the eye (to some) and stimulates debate but the biggest debate is where does ART begin.
I have a gut feeling that if people are paid loadsamoney for something that essentially needs no talent then it is dubious.
I recently visited the Matisse exhibition in France (I was just passing) and while the guy could paint, as was demonstrated by his early work, when he was famous he got paid for doing childish line drawings that a new artist would have been rightly laughed out of the gallery.

I don't think Richard Wilson gives a monkeys where art begins and ends. He does what he does...and that is part of its strength. He doesn't ask for anything - people either fall in love with it or they don't.

 

[slowmotion]

Does it smell like 20:50?

 

[Aperitif]

"A bleedin' pile of bricks - I could'v done that"
This springs to mind, reading the posts subsequent to the OP.

This sort of stuff exists within a defined situation ie: a 'Gallery'.
In everyday life, I find a stack of bricks interesting, a wall, a collection of pebbles, maybe a collection of bicycle wheels - whatever. What gives this stuff an 'edge' is the location + the intent of the artist.

Fnaar's pineapple falls into this category and the hypothesis is that a gallery will 'install' pineapple cubes. Do you want to engage? Your choice to wade through said cubes as a piece of 'self-performance art' (You will be videoed doing it - of course!) and suffer the pleasure of ham fisting at the end!?

Anyway. It all seems so abstract but.
If you go somewhere - let's say a revered institution like the National Portrait Gallery, pop upstairs to check out Nelson:

Ignore the fact that it looks like a person, clothed and with metallic buttons etc everywhere - just go up close and see the paint applied to a bit of canvas. It looks like a load of old squiggles - something you wouldn't even bother looking at if it was 'in your face' as er - a load of squiggles.
When I look at these squiggles in close-up, I'm trying to turn them back into a button or a gold braid epaulette. It's bloody difficult, but I would rather imagine than have a bit of pig stuffed down my trousers. (Except if it was by a chosen few here on CC ).

So, it's all about the stimulation - at first sight, on closer inspection, and lasting impression.

But you got to get your pineapple chunks into the exhibiton arena first, and then be prepared to back it up!

 

[Aperitif]

Sorry - I started on this and had to make a phone call - apologies if there is any dupe...

 

[rich p]

I don't think Richard Wilson gives a monkeys where art begins and ends. He does what he does...and that is part of its strength. He doesn't ask for anything - people either fall in love with it or they don't.

He didn't make the reflections or the building that is reflected. He simply provided the means to see a reflection. He could have done the same thing with a mirror. It's not ART it's faciliting a pleasant experience. Nothing intrinsically wrong with that.

I think you're agreeing with me but I may be wrong!

 

[Aperitif]

I forgot to mention that Carl André - he of the bricks - got accquitted of murdering his wife some time ago...she was complaining of the mess apparently!

 

[longers]

There's a geocache up the Longendale valley named "the other Carl Andre" because the weathering on a rock formation reminded someone of the bricks.
Well worth a visit.

The other brick that was in the news? The one that got nicked?

I was talking to my friend about it, he knew of the bloke, I can't remember his name but my friend said that for his degree piece he produced a blue English Heritage style plaque with his name and the dates he studied.
Not sure if that was the sum total but it didn't appeal to me.

 

[Aperitif]

Blue Plaque? Needs to see a dentist!

Wouldn't appeal to me either longers - the a priori approach only works if the work is indisputable. Put that man's blue plaque against those of Lister, Moore. Ravilious etc etc and it is rubbish - a student joke without body.

When I worked at art school I had to stand guard with a fire extinguisher as 'A Student' set light to the Pentagram book of Design of the time...(I think you failed, Harry!) That was his art statement, surprisingly not from a Fine Artist but a Graphic Designer who perhaps should have understood better!

In the words of my friend (oil) rich - "chacun à son goût"

 

[Haitch]

Spot on! Shall we team up? Alan & Fnaar, a bit like Gilbert & George (without the poo)

There you go again, think big, think impact! The name's brand's "FnA", keeps the Fnaar sound and gives the punters a ready expletive: Effen Aaah! And we keep the poo! It's the only thing that gets remembered.

So, 20-foot Nikes, all the way up the A1 to thumberland, made out of bestest poo (elephant).