Work, Work
I just had a two-hour revision session for Linguistics, and it was worrying just how much new information it included. In fact it wasn't so much a revision session, as a lesson. Shouldn't we have been told this stuff already? Sigh. Well, in this last week of college, I have an enormous take-home Ling exam, a paper for Empire and the Novel, and a final body of work for Art to rustle up. Yesterday was the deadline for my art sketchbook and yet another piece of Ling coursework. I'm probably going to be busy right until the 15th December, when everyone but me jets off home for the holidays. I'd prefer a day or two for end-of-term fun. Oh, and all your Christmas presents are going to be late, because I haven't had time to shop or anything, and knowing the mail system here I probably should have sent everything off a month ago anyway. Sorry!
Oh, but I'm still happy this week because my favourite artist for the Turner Prize actually won the thing. If you missed it, her name is Tomma Abts, and she makes nicely compelling abstract paintings. She eschews subject matter and repeatedly layers paint until the destined final form of the painting mysteriously makes itself apparent to her. Abts is so much better than all the other sucky artists shortlisted for the Turner this year. Ha!
Oh, but I'm still happy this week because my favourite artist for the Turner Prize actually won the thing. If you missed it, her name is Tomma Abts, and she makes nicely compelling abstract paintings. She eschews subject matter and repeatedly layers paint until the destined final form of the painting mysteriously makes itself apparent to her. Abts is so much better than all the other sucky artists shortlisted for the Turner this year. Ha!
posted by susie r at 5:58 PM
7 Comments:
Ah, I dunno, I quite liked the live-in Office.
But, yeh, I thought Abts's work was interesting and a well-deserved winner.
Really? The office thing? I thought that guy's work was an interesting idea, but couldn't imagine it actually being any fun to see in an art gallery. I thought his film about disgruntled reality tv show victims was cool, but I'd rather see it as a Channel 4 documentary. Plus, how did these two bits of his work link together? Didn't really see the connection there.
Well, my random musings on it (no doubt lacking in any real insight) are...
I think it was meant to be a comment on life as a Microcosm: life in an office is Reality and we all complain about it; the people on TV were in a Reality TV programme, and they complained about it too. They have to work at achieving fame, follow set rules and make an impression, just as people have to do in an Office. The difference this time is we are watching the Office life unfold before us, rather than seeing it on TV, but by making us watch them work, we see that they are no different to those on Television: we are all human, we all moan.
The people in the Office watch the TV and think they are different; the people on TV see the Office workers and wish they hadn't gone on TV: we are never satisfied, and we are not as different as we'd like to think.
Or, of course, I may be talking complete and utter crap, as per usual.
Oh, and there's a clip here with some rather unfavourable remarks made about the competition in general:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6205970.stm
Mmm, I suppose that makes sense. I still maintain that whatever the thought behind it, the actual gallery experience would not be particularly valuable. Whereas Abts's paintings look like the sort of work you could really sink into.
I quite the way Abts gives no agenda to her work: they're there because they're there; there is no hidden meaning and you should bring to it your own thoughts.
Makes a refreshing change from being forced to try and grasp ludicrous concepts that are just that little bit too far-fetched.
You betcha, art student! I have to admit, I missed it last year, and then later I found out it had been won by a guy who dismantled a shed, made it into a boat, sailed the boat down a river, and then made the boat back into a shed again.
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