Roll Up! All the fun of the Art?

I guess the question was obvious. Is this art? A question that appears as old as recorded civilisation itself. In this case it was being deliberated by reporters and critics at the opening in London's Tate Modern gallery of Carsten Höller's 'Test Site' 2006. The work though, has also been described as the hottest ticket in town. A complex of shiny stainless steel and polycarbomate tubes descending from the various levels of Tate's galleries to the ground level in the somewhat stark turbine hall.
One in a line of sometimes challenging and thought provoking art installations, 'Test Site' takes none of the fun out of art. On the contrary, on the opening night and as the public started to appear, it seemed to put a lot of fun back into art. Indeed, so much 'white knuckle ride fun' was had by all that the question was asked was it really art or just a funfair helter-skelter? 'The Times' correspondent, Sean O'Neill even asked the question was it also an accident waiting to happen? So art can be dangerous then can it Mr O'Neill? I would never have guessed.
I note that most people, young and old, got off at the end of their 'turn' and remarked at the speed or the G-force they had just experienced. I don’t recollect hearing anyone declare it as a beautiful artwork combining function and form in an aesthetically pleasing combination.
So what if they didn't. It's not wrong to have fun from modern art. Conversely, I have always expected that art should make a statement, contain a message. 'Test Site' is no exception. You can of course just stand back and observe its place in the overly large turbine hall and watch its curving forms break up the original rectangular forms of the building. You can also get a ticket, queue up and eventually participate the inside of each of the forms as you hurtle to earth again. For a few seconds it takes you over and surrenders you to its gravitational power.
Either way you will experience the message of the installation. Like the 'Weather Project', Tate Modern 2003 it will encompass you in a way that is comfortable to yourself, whether as a 'doer' or an onlooker. In 2003, you could lay on your back on the cold hard concrete floor and observe yourself in the mirrors of the false ceiling. Alternatively, you could simply watch others doing just that. The choice was yours and in 2006 the choice is the same.
Tate Modern have again challenged the concept of what modern art is about and its place in society. Barriers of class, race, gender, age all fall apart, like they did in 'Weather' and a Post-impressionist Georges Seurat style of social intermingling ensues. I congratulate Tate Modern on this occasion.

Madonna and Child

Well Mrs Ritchie, it looks as though you have had your way so far. A small black child named David Banda arrived in a Johannesburg airport today destined for an onward journey to one of your UK homes no doubt. Your overnight package has arrived Ma'am. Sign here please. Did no-one tell you slavery was outlawed in the late 18th century and that England finally abolished it in the early 1800's?
What were you thinking of that day last week when a fragile young Malawian orphan was presented to you on your visit to an orphanage? Did you think you had the right to play with the lives of children just because you have money to spend? That's how you bought your art isn't it Mrs Ritchie? You just paid more than anyone else because you had it to spend. Then you stopped buying art? Something clicked inside you then. You suddenly realised that the accumulation of artefacts for artefacts sake was not such a good thing after all. That you were still an empty person, despite your wealth. You got bored didn't you Mrs Ritchie. Is that how this will end? Will you get bored and move on to something else that will guarantee your place in the media headlines?
You have clearly attempted to bypass the authorities with your bribes of cash. You have flaunted highly regarded charity’s objections against this attempted adoption. This is not a decaying oil painting by Picasso Mrs Ritchie. There is no eventual resale value and no wall on which to hang your spoils. This is the priceless life of an orphaned child with which you bargain Mrs Ritchie. African flesh and blood.
Maybe you have been away from post-colonial America too long. Maybe this is just another scheme in your long list of blasphemous stage depictions. Will we be subjected to a 'Madonna and black child' as you strut the stage of some football stadium? Is that your ploy Mrs Ritchie? Have you been visiting the English National Galleries and getting ideas from the ageing Catholic iconography that adorns the walls of the Trafalgar Square building? Are those spoils of pre-colonial self-enrichment your goals too Mrs Ritchie?
Is this your 'next big thing' Mrs Ritchie?

Protecting veil….

Today is a new day, a sunny crisp new day. I've settled by the sea, I feel at home, but then again it's not really winter yet. It's out of London, so it's fine by me if I get flooded out. At least the chances of getting bombed are near zero. I think! Time will tell. This blog will not though, be a daily account of my life. My life is not important enough. This blog will be utilised to comment on the world. My worldview.
From today I am free of the shackles of academia. I am free from 7 years of pleasing the unpleasable. Academia, the last bastion of the unreal world. But no more of that. On to business.
I will publish some of my own essays here as well as commenting on the world, but for today I want to concentrate on the latest manifestation of ideological partiality that has hit Britain – The controversy that has surfaced into the mainstream: The veil or not the veil.
Jack Straw (Leader of the House of Commons) this week put this on the political agenda by announcing that he preferred to talk with his Islamic women constituents without them wearing a veil. He asked, he claims, for the veil to be removed before any discussion takes place. 'Facial body language is so important in any discussion' he states.
Maybe that is so, but I remember many meetings with women (particularly sales representatives) when the length of the skirt or the cut of the blouse and even the scent of the woman, definitely got in the way of my judgements. And I loved every minute of it!
So can this be as simple as dress code. Surely not. Straw seems to have decided, whether by himself or after consultation with others, to face a growing barrier between Christianity (or its equivalent secular veil), and Islam through the metaphor of the veil. Straw is a very intelligent person and has obviously thought this one out long and hard before the statement was made.
There is in any culture a longing for tradition to be maintained. I am reminded of Christianity’s own 'protecting veil' which I discovered by chance after hearing John Tavener's 1989 promenade season recording of the music by the same name. A closer examination of the discography led me to understand the importance of the veil to the Christian world of Constantinople. Further research provided the following notes by Tavener:
'…The Feast of the Protecting Veil of the Mother of God was instituted by the Orthodox Church to commemorate Her appearance in the church at Vlacherni (Constantinople), in the early tenth century, possibly a.d. 902. At a time of grave danger for the Greeks from Saracen invasion, Andrew, the holy fool, and his disciple Epiphanios, saw the Mother of God during an all-night vigil. She was high above them in the air, surrounded by a host of saints, praying earnestly and spreading out her veil as a protective shelter over the Christians. Heartened by this vision, the Greeks withstood the Saracen assault and drove away the Saracen army…'
That interpretation by Tavener, of one of history's celebrated wholly Christian events is a chilling reminder of where we stand in today's secularised western world. The veil then, reminds me that the world division along theological grounds is as strong as it was in Andrew's days and I have to ask who plays the 'fool' now?
What the outcome of this seemingly ordinary event in Straw's constituency will be I do not know, but I do fear the divide widens by the day and the consequences may be dire for both the Islamic and Western worlds. It has if nothing else, put the problem closer to the table top.