Monday, September 22, 2008

Anyone would think

What with this being my third post of the day that I have finally got access to a P.C after 10 days without such a luxury.

So anyway. Art. What is this Art of which we speak?

Last week we saw this at the Tate Gallery. In amongst your Gainsborough's and your Turner's and your Hockney's was Work No 850 which according to the blurb:

Work No. 850 centres on a simple idea: that a person will run as fast as they can every thirty seconds through the gallery. Each run is followed by an equivalent pause, like a musical rest, during which the grand Neoclassical gallery is empty.
This work celebrates physicality and the human spirit. (Martin) Creed has instructed the runners to sprint as if their lives depended on it. Bringing together people from different backgrounds from all over London, Work No. 850 presents the beauty of human movement in its purest form, a recurring yet infinitely variable line drawn between two points.


Yes, the piece consists of people running very fast through a long gallery at intervals of 30 seconds. And we loved it. Quirky and fun though obviously totally and utterly bonkers.

We looked at joggers in quite a different light for the rest of the week. Whilst previously we had just thought they were woman/man out for a run we now know they actually represent 'Art', and in the case of the large gentleman running in his suit 'Art as comedy.'

4 comments:

Karen said...

I'm sorry but what a load of waffly pretentious bollocks.

Reidski said...

Well, when I go running or play football, I consider myself to be a work of art and beauty. I am also a rather sad and delusional individual!

Yorkshire Pudding said...

That is NOT art. It is crap, indulged in by talentless arty farty gits who happen to live in London and feed off one another, massaging their pseudo-artistic egos together. Art can be random. It legitimately can be about seeing things anew but runners being paid to run through a gallery is utter bollix. Karen is right and so is Reidski in his last remark!

J.J said...

Karen - I love artists blurb. A constant source of amusement.

Reidski - a thing of art and beauty indeed, so long as art and beauty also includes 'sweaty'. ;-)

YP - typical Yorkshire! Speaks as ye finds! (Very funny too.)