mixed feelings

Occasionally something is emailed to me that reminds me of other stages of my life, not forgotten, never quite left behind. An excellent essay by artist Sheryl O'Gorman had me scurrying to google to look at the latest winner of the Waikato Contemporary Art Award.

The official media release hints that there will be controversy, paving the way rather than going into defensive mode after the event, perhaps!

Mmmm...

Plenty to think about!

Here is Sheryl's essay, published below with permission.

***

The thing about ‘in jokes’…

Art still has the ability to stir up emotion and controversy, as witnessed by the recent win by a pile of rubbish in the Waikato national contemporary art awards. To most lay people it is nothing more than that; a pile of old rubbish.

And, indeed, that is what it is, exactly as the artist intended. The thing about ‘conceptual art’ is that its not about the ‘art object’, in fact there need not be an actual art object at all; its about the concept: in this case, a rather funny in-joke…

Art is usually taken very seriously but in this instance the artist pokes fun at the whole institution by taking no part himself in constructing the ‘artwork’, instead he sends a list of instructions to the curators of the competition and gets them to do the work. Secondly, he uses the discarded wrappings of all the other entrants (the rubbish) to create the winning ‘artwork’, thereby mocking all the efforts of the other entrants…

The joke enlists the active cooperation of the judge, who activates the insipient irony of a clever practical joke, by making it the winning artwork. The more I think about it the funnier it becomes. The discarded rubbish of all the other contestants wins the prize…

It doesn’t end there either; Paul Henry was inspired to create his own version of the work on TV. People were so incensed to think a ‘pile of rubbish’ could win an art competition (which some would say is not at all unusual) with a prize of $15,000 they actually bid money (though not thousands of dollars) for Paul Henry’s ‘artwork’… the irony increases… they all missed the point completely.

In-jokes are funny if you are in the know, and for those on the in-side it’s even funnier that outsiders don’t get it…

No one likes to be the butt of a joke though, so I’m glad I didn’t enter a painting in the competition this year. I’d have felt a fool to go to all that hard work only to be beaten by a pile of rubbish. But that’s the point; conceptual art is about the concept, not the work. And it was a clever concept. Not only was it funny but serious too in that it subtly shifts the boundaries of art, now including humour and irony into the artistic arsenal.

There is no reason to think that this is the last time a pile of rubbish will win a competition; while the rubbish itself is not new to art, there are always new twists as to the artist’s intention that can keep on providing a fresh concept behind the work. The artist can keep using the same pile of rubbish in new situations, should he so desire, to come up with what is considered new work, so long as he conveys his intent and convinces the judge it is a new concept.

But is it art? Traditionally we have elevated the art object and treated it as sacred, but in the ongoing debate about what art is, all kinds of different perspectives have been, and are being, explored. Art is more than the artefact; behind it is the art theory, the concept which spawned it. In conceptual art the concept itself is the art-piece, so long as it is conveyed to the viewer… or at least to those viewers open to it. There may be no artefact to possess, but in this case the irony and humour are free for all to enjoy, at least for those in the know, once we get past our inhibitions. And after all, its only art, not life and death… so why do so many of us get so worked up about it? It makes one think… and isn’t that the point of art?