Last week I visited the fame MONA art gallery in Hobart. By all accounts this is a "must see" when in Tasmania, or to quote the concierge at the hotel "You'll love it or hate it, but you have to see it."
I accept that I may not be the most cultured of individuals, but I would like to think of myself as being open and aware of my own ignorance.
So when I see a famed artwork that looks like my infant nephew could have done it, I can accept that I am the one at fault and not the artist or their critics/fans.
But I too have my limits.
One of the centrepieces of the gallery is the Cloaca, a machine designed by Wim Delvoye (and a lot of scientists). It is a machine that is smelt well before it is seen.
The purpose of the machine is literally to make human faeces. The machine is fed regular food daily through an insinkerator and then it methodically passes the digested food through multiple 'stomachs' and 'intestines', all mimicking the body. Finally the finished product is 'defecated' by the machine at 2pm every day. (According to a documentary I saw, you can purchase these 'prized' products for a mere $1500).
According to the artist, the Cloaca satirises modern art saying that most of it is ****, "this is a work of art about waste".
The only thing that remained with me after the exhibit, beside the unpleasantness of the smell that still lingers, is the irony that those who marvelled at the exhibit were the exact people the artist was mocking...
Who is missing the point, me or those who claim to understand...?
No comments:
Post a Comment