This is the slideshow from yesterday evening’s Deckchair Discussion at EDAN’s Courtyard Gallery in Seaham. We talked 4th Plinth (of course) and Gormley in general, and the consensus was that his work is all about him, which is the same for just about any artist. We talked about plinths nearer home: the Durham marketplace equestrian Londonderry and the Facebook group dedicated to its rescue, and we talked about the badly neglected Seaham statue, disowned even by the Council after his old offices were developed as flats.
Interestingly, three of us had applied to participate in the Spencer Tunick piece when he came to Newcastle/Gateshead in 2005 and one of us actually left the comforts of a warm duvet and went along and did it. Bravo.
Carl Andre’s controversial Equivalent VIII and the frothing fury of the redtops set my auld dad off in unparalleled fits of shouting – the first time I remember a national fuss being made about ‘art’. We compared the pile of bricks to the Clare Twomey work at MIMA right now, and that’s the second time she’s been mentioned here, and yes we’d all been to see it. We compared our reactions to the broken china to a different audience’s reactions to Lauren Healey’s MFA pieces, the second time she’s been mentioned, too.
Graham Head brought photos of Tim Hunkin’s Nick Serota art analyser, and we all agreed we’d better get down to Southwold pdq with our portfolios for an in depth review. “After thirty years of looking at new work in galleries and even newer work in studios, I am very familiar with the experience of being completely at a loss when confronting a new idea or image.” So are we, so are we.
Then we got onto architecture. Owen Luder’s functional Trinity Car Park and Victor Pasmore’s concrete Pavilion were lightly analysed, and unsurprisingly there were people who knew Peterlee and its planning rather well. It was pretty much unanimously agreed that the Pavilion’s geometric power is diminished since the surrounding houses have had their visual impact altered with the recent addition of pitched roofs.
And there we began to run out of time.
We didn’t get on to Bauhaus, or Pollock, or Wallinger wandering around in his bear suit, or whether or not photography is art always, never, or just sometimes.We finished with Yves Klein, which is always a good place to stop, and a wit at the back said it’s not quite the right shade of blue.
But is it art?
It was fun, many insights, and rather interesting too. If you follow me on Twitter, you were invited. Sorry you missed it, hmm? Never mind, You’re invited to the next one.
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2 Comments
I did the Spencer Tunick event. Was a lot of fun actually, although rather cold. :P
That I chickened out at the last minute is always a regret. Brava, Lol!