We went to hear a discussion at Turner Contemporary between John Kampfner and the artist Jeremy Deller - who is not an artist in the conventional sense, so his exhibition is really an installation of various artefacts and a couple of paintings which he has conceived. The topic "English Magic" might have been subtitled "Only Connect" since that is what visual art is all about now - pointing at something and making the audience do the work. So he has taken a number of diverse items: painting by ex-soldiers in prison, Russian share certificates, paintings by Turner and Ruskin to make a point.... about? Well, wealth - the coruscating effect of it on UK society? Except I don't think it did - there are attacks on the rich - perhaps they are thought-provoking for people... but I guess if you've been thinking about if for nearly 40 years...
Frankly I think one would get a better idea about this in a well-argued article of say, 3,000 words maximum. But then...
Kampfner is an ex-editor of the New Statesman - he has written a sort of history of the rich which does sound very interesting. My only complaint against him is that he isn't particularly left-wing. The discussion on wealth was well-structured but disappointing - reportage rather than critique. I suppose unless I hear an analysis of the problem and some idea of how to start a solution I don't really see the point. K did have some ideas that were interesting - "reputation laundering" and of course the fact that when money is concentrated in so few hands, they cannot actually spend it, therefore it ceases to be of use in the economy. Perhaps we should start a fashion for the rich to invest in small UK manufacturing industries - they can all boast about it "My gasket manufacturer turned over £137m last year" "Really - you're in gaskets - I've got a printed circuit board manufacturing start-up..." "Well, I'm heavily into renewables myself" and so on.
Jeremy Deller was pleasant and mildly amusing - but not especially radical or exciting in his thinking - given that this exhibition "represented Britain" at the Venice Biennale, he presumably wouldn't bite the hand that feeds him.
I have just discovered - thanks to the wonderful Wikipedia - that JD actually trained as an art historian at the Courtauld - so he is the perfect conceptual artist. I should applaud him for applying his skills so successfully. We were there with two friends, who both asked questions of a political nature - but they were not satisfactorily answered - I was left with a mild sense that they did not want to upset UKIP... but perhaps I am being unfair.
It was interesting, but curiously unsatisfactory and at one point I stopped listening - apparently during this point Kampfner said "there is not going to be any state funding of art - so live with that!." He is heading up a thing called the Creative Industries (dread word!) Confederation which is about to go public. As Mark says, this is a sort of Thatcherite thing - where miserable funding decisions made by the government are spun as interesting new opportunities... what does he mean, there will be no state funding? Have they disbanded the Arts Council? Or have they announced that its budget is reduced to zero? Well, no doubt there will be future revelations. But is it worse to artists to depend on the whim of some Russian Maecenas? Or some civil servant with an art history degree?
It was unsatisfactory because there was nothing that made me catch fire - inspired me to research, thought or further interest. I will probably be reading the book and seeing the exhibition, but it all has an air of "same old, same old" to me. I suppose it's interest lies in that K has created a bit of public/media (which is what it really means) discussion about the rich, but this is as old as Croesus - didn't someone say "the rich you shall always have with you"? (I know, I know.)
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| Deller in front of one of his conceptions - a hen harried clutching a red Range Rover |
Frankly I think one would get a better idea about this in a well-argued article of say, 3,000 words maximum. But then...
Kampfner is an ex-editor of the New Statesman - he has written a sort of history of the rich which does sound very interesting. My only complaint against him is that he isn't particularly left-wing. The discussion on wealth was well-structured but disappointing - reportage rather than critique. I suppose unless I hear an analysis of the problem and some idea of how to start a solution I don't really see the point. K did have some ideas that were interesting - "reputation laundering" and of course the fact that when money is concentrated in so few hands, they cannot actually spend it, therefore it ceases to be of use in the economy. Perhaps we should start a fashion for the rich to invest in small UK manufacturing industries - they can all boast about it "My gasket manufacturer turned over £137m last year" "Really - you're in gaskets - I've got a printed circuit board manufacturing start-up..." "Well, I'm heavily into renewables myself" and so on.
Jeremy Deller was pleasant and mildly amusing - but not especially radical or exciting in his thinking - given that this exhibition "represented Britain" at the Venice Biennale, he presumably wouldn't bite the hand that feeds him.
I have just discovered - thanks to the wonderful Wikipedia - that JD actually trained as an art historian at the Courtauld - so he is the perfect conceptual artist. I should applaud him for applying his skills so successfully. We were there with two friends, who both asked questions of a political nature - but they were not satisfactorily answered - I was left with a mild sense that they did not want to upset UKIP... but perhaps I am being unfair.
It was interesting, but curiously unsatisfactory and at one point I stopped listening - apparently during this point Kampfner said "there is not going to be any state funding of art - so live with that!." He is heading up a thing called the Creative Industries (dread word!) Confederation which is about to go public. As Mark says, this is a sort of Thatcherite thing - where miserable funding decisions made by the government are spun as interesting new opportunities... what does he mean, there will be no state funding? Have they disbanded the Arts Council? Or have they announced that its budget is reduced to zero? Well, no doubt there will be future revelations. But is it worse to artists to depend on the whim of some Russian Maecenas? Or some civil servant with an art history degree?
It was unsatisfactory because there was nothing that made me catch fire - inspired me to research, thought or further interest. I will probably be reading the book and seeing the exhibition, but it all has an air of "same old, same old" to me. I suppose it's interest lies in that K has created a bit of public/media (which is what it really means) discussion about the rich, but this is as old as Croesus - didn't someone say "the rich you shall always have with you"? (I know, I know.)
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