Monday 15 October 2012

The Turner Contemporary gets a YouTube account and other rambles.


Here in my bookshop art books go in a different section to photography books, books about the movies go in another section too.

In the world of contemporary art the situation has reached a point where I have stepped beyond asking the metaphysical question; what is art? And I have moved into the apophatical realm of asking what isn’t art?

I have taken a photograph of some books from the art section, put them on top of a cardboard box, taken a picture of it, but is it art?
This isn’t art!

From time to time I have observed that people working in contemporary art galleries probably have to fairly careful about what they leave where, in case of inadvertent veneration. No one after all wishes to have their banana examined too closely.

In a new departure the Turner Contemporary art gallery here in Margate has opened a YouTube account called TCMargate here is the link http://www.youtube.com/user/TCMargate

Some of their films may be surrealist, or perhaps they haven’t worked out how to delete things from YouTube, here are some examples.






I think however there is a possibility their banana is showing.

There is however a tradition of surreal films here is one by Salvador Dali


I have mentioned videos they have put on the internet before that could perhaps be. What?
Sea Shanty Sing Song 11.12.10 from Turner Contemporary on Vimeo.

After discovering that the video above wouldn't stop on my smart phone I looked around for a contemporary art video that wasn't boring, here it is

 

8 comments:

  1. I have spent my time defending some of the stuff the TC does I even defended the walk round the bathing pool. I wish people wouldnt give "ART" such a hard time , the will all happily watch a bad film but view a bad art installation the world is going to hell in a hand cart. The film will have lasted maybe a couple of hours and been dire but did they walk out or change channel or take the dvd out no they watch it. Show them an Eminn exibit an they all are critics with expert views.

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    1. Don I think my point here is more along the lines of are the top two videos published by the TC meant to be artistic, or were they published by mistake?

      One way and another a very large amount of public funding goes the way of the TC, which mostly doesn’t happen with films.

      So I guess the answer is in the area of people are inclined to be more critical of things like public art galleries, where they have had to pay for them whether they wanted to or not.

      I guess this is one of the reasons I am inclined to criticise TDC.

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  2. I think there should be more criticism of all displays of Modern Art which seems characterised by the paradigm,. There is no need for us to nod sagely as if we actually understand some of it. The massive leveling that is taking place in our society has also leveled art to much that is banal. Art also reflects life, and as we all disappear into the homogenised underclass so beloved of the globalsers, expect to see the new emergence of a characterless art.

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  3. I see that Tracey "I love Margate so much I couldn't wait to f*ck off" Emin is complaining about the cut in funding at the TC. My suggestion is that they charge an entry fee of £1, which will also help prevent the visiting figures from being manipulated by the many people who just go in to use the toilets.

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    1. My suggestion is that they turn it into a multi-storey car park - something which is needed and would bring tangible benefit to the area. It would generate income, save us paying out huge subsidies, and spare us the pretentious witterings of those who so desperately want us to believe they are cultured.

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    2. I just show people my photography to prove I'm cultured! ; )

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  4. Anon is the Mill lane Multi-storey car park full to over flowing or are you being ironic? I dont ever find parking in Margate difficult so how would another benefit the area? we have the centre plus the carpark behind the oldtown/high street.Why would appreciating anothers views maake anyone cultured. You have shared your views so are your pretentious witterings of someone who so desperately wants us to believe they are cultured or are you a car park consultant?

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  5. Nice reply Don, good for you.

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Comments, since I started writing this blog in 2007 the way the internet works has changed a lot, comments and dialogue here were once viable in an open and anonymous sense. Now if you comment here I will only allow the comment if it seems to make sense and be related to what the post is about. I link the majority of my posts to the main local Facebook groups and to my Facebook account, “Michael Child” I guess the main Ramsgate Facebook group is We Love Ramsgate. For the most part the comments and dialogue related to the posts here goes on there. As for the rest of it, well this blog handles images better than Facebook, which is why I don’t post directly to my Facebook account, although if I take a lot of photos I am so lazy that I paste them directly from my camera card to my bookshop website and put a link on this blog.