"Shed beats buttocks, bird for top art prize"

by **Gouda** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 9:56 pm

Ah, the wonders of Contemporary Art regress undiminished. Shall we speculate as to what the western corporate-intelligence complex and today’s congress for eschat- n’ scato-logical freedom would have us glean politically and culturally from the Turner Prize? Not sure what the hell the “Stuckist Movement” is, but Charlie Thomson has an idea about the conspiracy: "‘The Tate is run by a self-serving clique who hide behind secretiveness,’ said Charles Thomson, co-founder of the Stuckist movement...‘The real prize at the Tate is becoming a trustee. It's worth far more money,’ he said.” Well, come on, Ofili did re-invent Fatima somehow for the age of elephantine crap, which I think is well worth board membership. Kudos to CNN editors on OK-ing the excellent headline: "Shed beats buttocks, bird for top art prize" <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/12/05/arts.turner.reut/index.html">edition.cnn.com/2005/WORL...index.html</a> <blockquote>Quote:<hr>LONDON, England (Reuters) -- A weatherbeaten shed fought off a pink hummingbird and a pair of buttocks on Monday to land the Turner prize, one of the art world's most hotly debated awards. Simon Starling won the coveted £25,000 ($43,370) prize with "Shedboatshed" -- a shed he turned into a boat, floated down the Rhine and then rebuilt as a shed again. Starling said afterward: "I have always been a very lucky artist. I found a shed that I wanted to make into a boat and it had a paddle already on the side." Starling, who also pitched for the Turner with an electric bicycle he rode across a Spanish desert, explained to anyone baffled about their artistic value that his works were "the physical manifestation of my thought process". In awarding the ever-contentious award to Starling, the judges said: "He transforms and reframes existing objects using a rigorous process of research to develop his sculptural installations." Gillian Carnegie had been the favorite of the bookmakers to land this year's Turner, for her series known as "bum paintings" -- pictures of her own bottom. Another hotly fancied candidate was Jim Lambie, for the garishly painted bird ornaments he found in a junk shop and laid out on a Technicolor floor that looked like a zany '60s happening. The shortlist was completed by Darren Almond's four-screen video installation of his grandmother returning to the seaside ballroom where she danced on her honeymoon. Critics protest outside museum The Turner invariably stirs controversy and this year was no exception, with figurative artists fiercely opposed to the prize staging a colorful demonstration outside London's Tate Britain museum. "The Tate is run by a self-serving clique who hide behind secretiveness," said Charles Thomson, co-founder of the Stuckist movement. Thomson, leading protesters dressed in elephant and monkey masks, demanded Tate Director Nicholas Serota's resignation over the Tate's decision to spend £705,000 on a work by one of its own trustees, artist Chris Ofili. "The real prize at the Tate is becoming a trustee. It's worth far more money," he said. Ofili won the 1998 Turner with a Virgin Mary figure made of elephant dung. Every Turner shortlist provokes a heated "Is It Art?" debate, and the show attracts up to 100,000 visitors annually. In 1995, Damien Hirst won with a pickled sheep. In 2003, transvestite potter Grayson Perry wore a frilly purple dress to accept his award. Artist Tony Kaye once tried to submit a homeless steel worker as his entry, while pop superstar Madonna notoriously swore live on television when presenting the prize in 2001. Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<hr></blockquote>

by **FourthBase** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 10:39 pm

<blockquote>Quote:<hr>Artist Tony Kaye once tried to submit a homeless steel worker as his entry<hr></blockquote> That's hilarious. I'm conflicted, because I get the art and like a lot of it. But I also realize how stupid and decadent some of it is. Where and what are the politics? Art like this has a place, but is it being pushed to the top in order to both devalue art itself to the "uninitiated" and suppress/drown out political art?

by **banned** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 11:32 pm

...with my liberal friends about grants for artists. I'm sorry, my tax money is not going to fund some poseur to paint their ass. Not unless *I* get a grant to write Aragorn/Legolas slash. <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/roll.gif ALT=":rollin">

by **Sepka** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 12:04 am

As long as the contest is paid for with private funds, I'm fine with it. It's stupid, but a lot of the things I do to amuse myself are stupid too. -Sepka the Space Weasel

by **banned** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 12:43 am

Why don't you start a thread in the Parlour--"Stupid Things I Do To Amuse Myself"? I talk to my fish. I'm not even sure if fish have ears, maybe he just feels the vibrations. But I swear, he knows his name.

by **Project Willow** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 1:19 am

Record yourself talking to your fish for 15 hours and enter that in the next competition.

by **marykmusic** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 2:23 am

MY fish and I have a psychic connection. Only the smart ones, though. I should film this: I can be sitting at my computer and slap a mosquito or other bug, look across the house at my fishtank... and the angelfish are at this end of it, staring at me. The swordfish, however, are not. I do my best Ernie (Sesame Street) imitation: "Here, fishy fishy fishy!" as I walk over and drop the insect on top of the water. The smaller angel (I swear it's a girl) usually gets it. Years ago, my family alternative band did art-show openings, back in the dead-chicken-in-a-box-of-dirt days. I never did quite "get it." Okay, any film of my family at home would be some kind of art... --MaryK

by **Gouda** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 6:14 am

The age of corporate capitalism appears to be the worst in history from an aesthetic standpoint simply in the allocation of resources. Feudalism and its outriders give us cathedrals; the "heroic bourgeois" era gives us Rembrandt and Beethoven, early robber-baronism gives us Henry James and Impressionism, the upheavals of the great wars of the early-mid century last render unto us Joyce and Mattisse and Bartok. And now... - J. Blum

by **jenz** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 12:33 pm

you can find their manifesto etc on stuckist.com make a lot of the points which others, including Duchamp, have made about post dada dadaism, etc.

"Shed beats buttocks, bird for top art prize"

"Shed beats buttocks, bird for top art prize"

Re: "Shed beats buttocks, bird for top art prize"

See, this is why I get in fights...

Re: "Shed beats buttocks, bird for top art prize"

Zat so, Sepka?

Re: Zat so, Sepka?

Re: Zat so, Sepka?

Re: Zat so, Sepka?

stuckist

Who is online