I went to a small art gallery to have a look of exhibition
of works gathered by open-to-public call or submission.
As with any thing which involve selection,
no two persons have the same taste.
I cannot agree with the selection panels' taste.
Some of the works,
I would say, more suitable for local history museum.
Why?
Some works are just a series of photographics,
not of particular photographic skills or achievement...
of old places before they become history.
A piece of work is just a protest statement uglily written with paint brush in colour
about whether he should use the money to join the exhibition
or to buy a hat.
A piece of work is multimedia: a video playing inside a real car -
really old car of the 50s/60s,
about the various owners of the car and where had it been.
A set of work is "toxic" made in a synthetic resin toy figure & related items in same colours.
( I did not bother to take photo of them at all)
A set of painting by a patient painting her father swiming in strange mask & costume.
(is it the judge has pity on the patient?)
A piece of work is a room with interior surface fully stuck messily
with scam/hoax of ads luring people
by telling them they have won big money.
( didn't take photo of that room ; smelly)
These two photos :
Close-up photos of two eldery people in a care home.
Some people will say installation art is art because they make people think.
Just like the
Marcel Duchamp's urinal titled Fountain.
Really?
Well, there are some pieces of works which are of some interest.
 |
Ceramics urns in shapes of buildings |
Ceramics urns in shapes of buildings.
But, at the back, on wall, someone paint enlarged colour btis CMYK printing of products.
I couldn't believe that they were selected.
 |
A big piece of cut burnt wood pieces to remind people of a fire which burnt down a local landmark. |
 |
"Empty corner" of empty shop painted on cardboard. |
A piece of work is an illuminating piece which look like 3 pieces of wood panel commonly used in art gallery/museums.
Oil and enamal splashes of at least interesting reaction and flow of metalic colour.
(forgotten to take picture)
A set of works are embroidery threads on canvas stiching the countryside tour routes over something like enlarged contour line map.
Some are marginal between craft and art I would say,
Luckily they also shown some of the works of those not-selected
as small print on photocopy paper.
Each image is less then A5 though.
colour prints of submissions which had not been selected into the exhibition.
A few I would select instead.
At least they are in more traditional sense of art/painting.
That gallery had problems before for including too many modern abstract art.
I understand that aesthetics is not the only criteria of art.
Beauty and Art are in the eyes of the beholder.
Do you think
any piece of work
with the artist statement saying they are
trying to ponder certain issue(s) in life or in society
and given a strange mocking title,
is art worthy to be included in gallery?
Is visual philosophy really counted as art ?
Or, is it just a big PR event to encourage visual art activities?
(it is a free exhibition open to the public)
