This news blurb has been on my desktop a while now because I confess that I found it funny. Defacing ART in museums is obviously a serious concern for people who care about both ART and History so I'm not encouraging it by any means. In this case though it wasn't about defacing but adding eyes to a face. It happened in a museum in Russia somewhat recently. I could only imagine some poor guy, (or gal) in a shabby uniform and absolutely bored out of his or her mind while standing whole days at a time, month after month in a grey Russia with a dismal life. With a BIC pen in their pocket, did they suddenly think of this on the spur of the moment, or was it thought out over too much vodka one evening?
Looking at it another way, isn't it possible that this act was an ironically subversive statement on the faceless quality of life in Russia? Maybe of everywhere?
Wasn't the guard in question, acting more like a renegade artist than a bored employee of the state? Wouldn't Marcel Duchamp approve?
In any event, the poor soul was probably sent to a gulag in the north for a lengthy sentence.
Below, is what happened to one of Wei-Wei's sculptures (Porcelain Cube) that was pushed over during the reception of his recent show at Palazzo Fav in Bologna Italy. Apparently, the saboteur snuck into the reception and tipped it over to everyone's horror. The fellow was identified as a Czech national and a wanna-be artist who was looking for attention.
Ironically Wei-Wei himself smashed a 2000 year old ceramic vessel (but which he had bought himself) and documented it in photographs. His conceptual piece on that destruction is called 'Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn'. It was a protest against the violence and injustice perpetrated by those in power. Hmmm.
Well,,,,, I think the jumble of ceramic pieces laid out on a plinth looks pretty good as a project in itself.
Lastly, but not leastly, for your perusal from an advert on Ebay.au, I present nine John Deere bonnets from their L series lawn mowers. Somehow it speaks to me of the absurdity of not just Art but politics too.
No comments:
Post a Comment