I know, I know. It does seem like a rather silly thing to award a major prize to. I've wandered about our own national gallery and wondered how an almost empty room with only a few boards in it could be called "art". It must be in the mind of the beholder, and the beholders who award prizes like the Turner have different minds from my own. That being said, however, maybe there really is something to it. We live in a very strange world, and what better way to depict such a world than a light flashing on and off. Give us a couple of decades and perhaps that's all we'll have.
Ed Weick > I am sure that FWers will be interested to know who won the Turner Prize > last night. This is named after one of our greatest artists and is > considered to be the most prestigious prize in the world of art. It is so > important that the "intelligent" channel on English TV -- BBC 2 -- devoted > an hour to show the works of the finalists and the deliberations of the > jury. In fact, the programme was so important that it was allowed to run on > for another 20 minutes, delaying the evening news. > > The work of art that won the prize was an empty room with a light flashing > on and off every five seconds. This is a worthy successor of a series of > great works of art in recent years which have won the Turner Prize, > including a pile of house bricks and an unmade bed. This year's winner, > Martin Creed, already well-known for his crumpled balls of used photocopy > paper which sell for thousands of pounds to great art galleries all round > the world, says that he is unable to explain adequately the meaning behind > his latest creation and that it is up to us to find meaning in it. Indeed, > he says, his work of art is so democratic that almost any of us can > re-create it in our own homes -- although, of course, we would probably be > unable to sell ours for well over �100,000 that he's been offered for his > original. > > For anybody who might possibly demur about the beauty of this work of art, > please remember that the English are the most sensitive and discerning > people in the whole world, and that the artistic cognoscenti of London who > chose the winner of the Prize are the most sensitive and discerning people > in the whole of England -- as freely acknowledged by the artistic > cognoscenti of several other capitals round the world such as New York and > Paris. > > Keith Hudson > > > ___________________________________________________________________ > > Keith Hudson, Bath, England; e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ___________________________________________________________________ >
