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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2005-02-24, Page 5Other Views THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2005. PAGE 5. But is it art? I was shocked and saddened to learn from my morning paper that Ilium has lost his case in the Federal Court of Appeal. Ilium - real name Brent McClelland - is a conceptual artist who lives in Calgary. He was appealing to Ottawa to allow him to write off unpaid back taxes plus 10 year's worth of living expenses incurred while he developed his theory of art. His theory of art? Well, being a conceptual artist. Ilium had managed to boil it down to a single image, which he unveiled before the federal judges as Exhibit A. It was an empty picture frame (illustrates the decline of creativity don’t you see?). The judges gave Ilium a thumbs down, ruling that, while a vacant frame may or may not be a work of art. it was something less than a viable business enterprise. Needless to say, Ilium is dismayed, as are his supporters, who called the ruling 'troubling'. They say that judges should not be determining what could be considered art. Perhaps not. But I wish somebody would step up to the plate. I don’t care if it’s a CFL linesman. Stephen Lewis, Mister Blackwell. Don Cherry - anybody but the bozos who currently tell us what is and what is not art. Such as? Well, such as the London geniuses who awarded the most recent $35,000 Turner Prize to British ceramicist Grayson Perry for his 'seductive' pots. Mister Perry - 43 years old. six feet tall and married - showed up to collect his prize dressed as his alter ego, Claire. Which is to say wearing a blonde page boy wig, a frilly blouse and a flouncy skirt a la Bo Tory known without legislation seat An Ontario opposition leader has done something they said couldn’t be done - made himself known without having a seat in the legislature. Progressive Conservative John Tory has been waiting five months for the chance to run for a seat and has one now former premier Ernie Eves has resigned his fairly safe Conservative seat northwest of Toronto and a by-election will be held there March 17. Many Conservatives have fumed and fretted meanwhile their leader cannot make his name a household word without being able to use the legislature as a forum and non-partisan analysts have tended to take the same view. Bob Rae as a New Democrat leader without a seat in 1982 was advised by his party’s strategists he had to win one as quickly as possible because “a leader has to be at the centre of political activity, the legislature.” But one indication Tory has managed to get himself recognized is the extensive coverage he has been given by news media. Any reporter covering the issue has accumulated a lat file of clippings from newspapers across the province. The Conservative leader has achieved this b> being around the legislature most days to comment on issues and holding so many press conferences in its corridors reporters are afraid to leave their offices in case he pounces on them. He also has travelled the province, making speeches and dropping in on news media and spreading his message. None of these tactics is new, but he has done more of them. Tory has managed to be noted by news media on almost every topic that has come up •since he became leader. His position is known on pitbulls. He has been heard saying he does not support the Liberals’ plan to ban them, but would favour legislation if it addressed all dangerous dogs. Now I don’t personally care whether Mister Perry dresses up like Shirley Temple, Big Bird or The Incredible Hulk, but were his pots - glazed depictions of abused children, lacerated socialites and landscapes of “burned-out cars stalked by murderous moppets” - really the very best that the British Art World could summon up in 2004? 1 guess so. Perry’s pots went on to be featured at London’s prestigious Tate Gallery - along with his closest competition - a bronze sculpture by the Chapman Brothers showing blowup dolls performing oral sex on each other. I suppose such developments in the art world shouldn’t be surprising - particularly not in Britain. After all. a survey last year of the 500 most powerful people in the British art world - artists, dealers, critics and curators in museums and galleries - revealed that a majority of them (64 per cent) had a clear winner in mind when it came to naming the single most influential work of art in the 20th century. A Picasso, perhaps? A Monet or Manet? A Matisse? A de Kooning? A Bacon? No, it was a men’s porcelain urinal, signed R.Crum 1917’. He has been heard arguing the Liberals are rushing their plan to designate much of south- central Ontario as greenbelt without proper analysis and consideration, trying to compensate for breaking their promises to restrain building elsewhere. Tory has been seen trying to look more moderate than his out-of-fashion, further right predecessors, Eves and Mike Harris. Many have suggested Tory is philosophically a reincarnation of the durable centrist premier William Davis, on whose staff he served in the 1980s, and he has tried to foster this. He has aimed to appear less partisan to attract wider support. He backed the Liberals’ demand for a greater share of federal funds, saying the provincial government is starving. He said he does not believe Health Minister George Smitherman, whom his party accuses of browbeating, does not care about people. He said he will raise the level of behaviour in politics by civilized debating and avoiding personal attacks and is shocked by MPPs’ unruly antics in the legislature and the ‘dysfunctional’ way it operates. Final Thought Until you make peace with who you are, you’ll never be content with what you have. - Doris Morlman Granted, it was actually submitted to a New York art exhibition in 1917 by the famous French artist Marcel Duchamp. Simon Wilson, ex-curator of the Tate Gallery gushed. “It’s got everything: rich metaphor, it’s scatological, it breaks social conventions and it’s very, very provocative.'’ You could render the same judgment about the Duchess of York breaking wind during a speech from the throne - but what's that got to do with art? Besides, whatever else the Crum/Duchamp 'installation’ may be called, it is also undeniably a piece of plumbing ripped from the wall of a Paris pissoir. Where is the art? And how does Duchamp get to hitchhike on the coattails of some anonymous sanitary engineer? What next - somebody wins The Turner for a triptych of dayglo painted VCRs? I’ll tell you what’s next. In fact, it's already happened. A gallery in Cape Town, South Africa is featuring an exhibit of famous 17th century Dutch Masters. Except all of the paintings are turned to face the wall. Visitors to the exhibit are confronted with row upon row of Vermeers, Hals, Steens and Rembrandts — as seen from the back. Curator Andrew Lamprecht says the reversal “forces gallery goers to reconsider their preconceptions about the art.” “These are fascinating things to see from behind,” says Lamprecht. Backs of paintings! Why, that’s almost as brilliant and revolutionary as...as vacant picture frames! Man, that Ilium! A genius just slightly ahead of his time. .But Tory put out news releases calling Smitherman a bully and Furious George’ and said the Liberals indulge in graceless mudslinging, promise-breaking, dishonesty and incompetence. He also helped organize a filibuster that delayed legislation on the ground ministers failed to show up and sent underlings to explain and pilot it through, none of which was conducive to restoring harmony. Tory has been helped become known also because the Liberals have broken promises and are seen as on the ropes and his party has governed so often news media view it as the natural alternative. Some in the public also may find his name memorable - this is the first time an Ontario leader has had the same name as his party. Tory has even enjoyed a small advantage from not being in the legislature, because anything he says there will be more open to other parties’ scrutiny and rebuttal. This is something the Liberals will count on, but a leader who can prosper even without being in the legislature should be able to reap some benefits from being there. Letters Policy The Citizen welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must be signed and should include a daytime telephone number for the purpose of verification only. Letters that are not signed will not be printed. Submissions may be edited for length, clarity and content, using fair comment as our guideline. The Citizen reserves the right to refuse any letter on the basis of unfair bias, prejudice or inaccurate information. As well, letters can only be printed as space allows. Please keep your letters brief and concise. Bonnie Gropp The short of it Happy days A friend recently loaned me a book, and for the first time ever, I thiqk I may not finish. Not that it’s not well-written. It’s actually quite fascinating. But the controversial Michael Moore’s 2001 tirade Stupid White Man is so disturbing, it’s stirring up discomfort that I can quite nicely live without thank you. Moore’s book shares reasons to believe that George W. and his cohorts stole the presidency that first time around. For those, like me, who are fairly certain that Bush was not and is not the man for the job, its contentions are maddeningly frustrating, even allowing for such a blatant list to the left. Frankly, the depression set in just reading the introduction. Reading Moore’s points on life in the 21st century makes you realize how far from Utopia we are. Which kind of got me looking back longingly to a time when we didn’t have nearly as much, and a lot of things were so much easier because of it. Flipping through the television channels recently I came upon Happy Days, that show about a wholesome American kid, played by Ron Howard, his family and friends. The wonderful, freckle-faced little boy who played Opie on the popular Andy Griffth Show many years before, was now a young man playing the fresh-faced Richie Cunningham. Yet. while the show originally centred around Howard’s character it was The Fonz. played by Henry Winkler who made the show what it was. The leather--jacketed motorcycle tough with the duck-tail, gained a cult following drawn to his rough edges and smooth charm. While the Fonz-style of town hood was more common to my sister and brother’s time, they were still around in the mid-1960s when I was a young girl. They hung around parking lots in their hot cars, cigarettes rolled in the sleeves of their mandatory white t-shirt, pants cuffed over chain-adorned black boots. There was an aura that both bewitched and repelled. Mom warned never to talk to them, which only further enhanced their mystique. They drag raced and drank alcohol. Cops kept a close eye, just waiting for one of them to slip a pointed leather toe over the line. What’s funny, however, is that most of it was a facade. Not many of them were really doing anything more than some of the ‘better’ kids; they just looked like they planned to. Of, course there were exceptions, but generally, the guys in leather jackets still had if not a healthy, then at least a moderate respect for authority and for their elders. They knew any crime could mean a suitable punishment so put their rebellious nature in check when necessary. Not so today. That same rebellious streak which has been a part of adolescence since Cain, rules a generation not overly concerned with consequences. As well, they have grown up in a world of convenience and materialism. They are encouraged to be educated, but probably won’t have a decent job waiting when they graduate. Government consistently reminds that the little guy doesn’t matter and the corporate world demands that only the strong will survive. Family does not often offer the same stability and the enemy at our doorstep is not one easily recognized. Certainly, the world was frightening and disappointing at times 45 years ago. Russia was a scary word. Homelife was not always what it should be. But there was a security, a predictability, a sense of comfort. The time of poodle skirts, saddle shoes and leather- jacketed hoods really were happy days.