Non-Ionic Surfactantism - The New Art?
Non-Ionic Surfactantism - the new Art?
Have you heard about Hamian Dirst's latest exhibition? Apparently, it is proving a wow at the Ideal Home Exhibition this month. Never one to mince ideas about his work (usually just minces his subjects) he has turned his artistic 'talents' to the house and home. Forget about dissected cows or sheep, this show really hits the public on the nose. I wouldn't want to spoil the impact of the exhibition before you go to see it, but see it you must.
Mops. Sturdy yard-brooms. Vacuum cleaners. Toilet pans and sinks - every single item one might find in the average British household is represented here. Dirst's beautifully original idea is obviously born out of long experience in the field of Good Housekeeping. Every item has been exquisitely dissected and displayed in huge glass-sided vats of Harpic. Each vat occupies a different section of the exhibition, and all the items within are artistically displayed out of context, for maximum effect.
Look closely, and you will see the the half-cooker gracefully floating next to the spotlessly clean pedestal bath, both suspended in mid-levitation like a David Blaine extravaganza. The washing machine hovers in close attendance, trailing it's waste pipe like some pale digestive tract, apparently in serious conversation with the toaster, which is slowly spinning on it's polar axis in an underwater ballet all it's own.
Moving past the show-stopping synchronised bidet display, one gratefully reaches the end of the exhibition, and removes one's gas-mask - the only necessary thing about the whole charade.
Interviewing Mr. Dirst later, he gives the impression that the whole idea is an attempt to help the public to understand the whole concept of how wrong it is to sanitise one's entire life. Quote: "Forever scrubbing, polishing, dusting and hoovering is the modern equivalent of Paganism. Praying to a false God, in the vain hope that keeping the house clean will provide absolution at St. Peter's spotless gate. Even the original conception was immaculate" Unquote. Gives a new meaning to 'White Goods'.
Sponsorship has, as usual, provided the headlines for the Paparazzi.
Lever Brothers. Well, who'd have thought it. The Mirror howls; 'Dirst Does His Dirty Washing in Public'. 'Clean-cut image Smashed', says the Telegraph. 'I was Dirst's Hygienist' - The Sun. Although his Docklands Garret now smells like a swimming pool, the stench of corporate backhandling pervades the air like rancid sewage.
10cc summed it up succinctly when Kevin Godley wrote the immortal lines 'Im Mandy - Fly Me'. No, not that one, the other one. What was it? Oh yes - 'Art for Art's Sake, Money For God's Sake'.
PS: Don't bother going to the IHE to see the show. I made it up. An artist, cutting things in half, and displaying them in preservative - complete, ineffable hogwash...
Sergei.
Have you heard about Hamian Dirst's latest exhibition? Apparently, it is proving a wow at the Ideal Home Exhibition this month. Never one to mince ideas about his work (usually just minces his subjects) he has turned his artistic 'talents' to the house and home. Forget about dissected cows or sheep, this show really hits the public on the nose. I wouldn't want to spoil the impact of the exhibition before you go to see it, but see it you must.
Mops. Sturdy yard-brooms. Vacuum cleaners. Toilet pans and sinks - every single item one might find in the average British household is represented here. Dirst's beautifully original idea is obviously born out of long experience in the field of Good Housekeeping. Every item has been exquisitely dissected and displayed in huge glass-sided vats of Harpic. Each vat occupies a different section of the exhibition, and all the items within are artistically displayed out of context, for maximum effect.
Look closely, and you will see the the half-cooker gracefully floating next to the spotlessly clean pedestal bath, both suspended in mid-levitation like a David Blaine extravaganza. The washing machine hovers in close attendance, trailing it's waste pipe like some pale digestive tract, apparently in serious conversation with the toaster, which is slowly spinning on it's polar axis in an underwater ballet all it's own.
Moving past the show-stopping synchronised bidet display, one gratefully reaches the end of the exhibition, and removes one's gas-mask - the only necessary thing about the whole charade.
Interviewing Mr. Dirst later, he gives the impression that the whole idea is an attempt to help the public to understand the whole concept of how wrong it is to sanitise one's entire life. Quote: "Forever scrubbing, polishing, dusting and hoovering is the modern equivalent of Paganism. Praying to a false God, in the vain hope that keeping the house clean will provide absolution at St. Peter's spotless gate. Even the original conception was immaculate" Unquote. Gives a new meaning to 'White Goods'.
Sponsorship has, as usual, provided the headlines for the Paparazzi.
Lever Brothers. Well, who'd have thought it. The Mirror howls; 'Dirst Does His Dirty Washing in Public'. 'Clean-cut image Smashed', says the Telegraph. 'I was Dirst's Hygienist' - The Sun. Although his Docklands Garret now smells like a swimming pool, the stench of corporate backhandling pervades the air like rancid sewage.
10cc summed it up succinctly when Kevin Godley wrote the immortal lines 'Im Mandy - Fly Me'. No, not that one, the other one. What was it? Oh yes - 'Art for Art's Sake, Money For God's Sake'.
PS: Don't bother going to the IHE to see the show. I made it up. An artist, cutting things in half, and displaying them in preservative - complete, ineffable hogwash...
Sergei.
posted by therussian | 12/01/2004 10:59:00 PM
1 Comments:
I think you'll find the Paparazzi just take photo's, it's the journalists and editors that write the headlines.
/pedant
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