blood and guts in artschool | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
tate modern After a recent trip to the new Tate Modern in London, I was inspired to dig out material from days at the Belfast School Of Art. Not much remains, a lot was jettisoned along a history of hasty house moves. Where now the paintings full of Basquiat - style words and symbols and arrows and telephones and binary numbers and space shuttles and stuff ? Where the Joe Orton - style defaced (or updated) university library books ? The collage of porn - flesh with (for some reason) Julie Burchill's face. tabloidy I spent most of my time there with two pervy pranksters called Maurice and Philip. In a sense what we did would now be called Brit Art. Full of jokes and shocks. And tabloidy "over-potent" symbolism. I'm not sure if we were good, mind. We got noticed and depending on the module and tutor, we always got the highest or the lowest marks that month. This was good. Philip photocopied his genitals hundreds of times and Pritt-stuck them into a Christmas tree the height of the studio. Maurice packed a condom full of blood and scrap meat from the butchers. This he suspended from the ceiling (I guess inspired by Andres Serrano's "Piss Christ", which we all liked). Unfortunately, on the sunny morning of our final appraisal the condom ruptured and showered half the room, and many other students finely-wrought pencil sketches, with offal. stereotypes Who else was there?.. certain stereotypes- the unfeasibly trendy but rubbish (yes, these people were born to annoy you); the well-versed but academic (future art tutors).. neurotic girls (painted doves of peace trapped in barbed wire); the odd raver asleep under the table (papier mache aliens, hand painted acid fractals ..yes indeed); sensible posh kids who can't hack it and soon switch to the more disciplined design areas; spotted hard-rock fans (hobbits and vikings, "Heavy Metal" magazine "fantasy art" - nowadays probably Buffy The Vampire Slayer); the token retired gent with too much time on his hands (Impressionist landscapes). We were laughable stereotypes too. Young Ruffians Determined To Kick Arse. Or something. But then Brit Art came along. Now Artschool has loads of Young Ruffians Determined To Kick Arse. loose women and funky boys If you are thinking of going to Artschool, enjoy it. Untamed, ashamed, vain or insane - never in your life will see such a collection in the same room. All chasing an oasis of no work and loose women or funky boys. Scribbling and squinting through a winter's morning at some v. disappointing "life-model". Our tutors, for some reason, were all brutally-honest but acid - frazzled Mancunians ("For God's sake, Denise, bolder. Big bold strokes. Stop being such a bloody mouse"). department store In truth, most of my Artschool days were spent playing truant, getting out of bed in the late afternoon, wandering through blank passersby in an unknown city, smoking cigarettes and reading a book in the coffeeshop of a department store. tate modern 2 The Tate Modern is an unbelievable building, even if a lot of the collection is ho-hum minor works from the old Tate. Obviously due to the scale that it's taken, there'll be plenty you'll enjoy. I liked the Joseph Beuys and the Rebecca Horn. All that primordial, dark nature stuff. And I liked the Francis Bacon painting of an uncomfortable man on a bed-settee. As I'm currently in this position. junkstore If you do go to Artschool, remember the hard work comes later (sponsorship, publicity, friends in the media). The good news is that the old goal of immortality is now a given courtesy of internet junkstore art sites (links to the right) where the untamed, ashamed, vain and insane who didn't get sponsorship, publicity or friends in the media still have as many potential visitors as the Tate Modern. This "trash art" or "bad art" is now called "roots art" and people like it because it isn't brainy or ironic. But it reaches similar conclusions to work that is. Check them out (especially Jim Shaw's baffling "Turtle In A Hat..". Now that's what I call "Blimey!") |
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David Butler Piss On Maurice. Temporary Installation Urine on Plexiglass |
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David Butler Bad Heads 1 2 3. Oil crayon on board |
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David Butler Psychedelic Exorcist. Photo montage |
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Phil Coburn Founding Ulster. Defaced library book plate |
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roots art collections | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
jim shaw | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
psb gallery | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
bert christensen | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
the tate modern | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
index |