art beat-up

Yesterday the Dominion Post (and by default, 'Stuff') kindly updated us with the issue facing Peter Trevelyan's Te Papa forecourt sculptures, Mimetic Brotherhood. The issue is of course the 'robust' interaction they are receiving from some members of the public on account of the artist's statement that they were 'totally indestructible'.

What the writer neglected to mention is that Trevelyan was blatantly miss-quoted when he first spoke with the Dom Post about the work. I would argue that the writer made this 'error' in reporting on the work with the utmost intent of public provocation, only to pry another story out of it weeks later, writing on the snowball effects of his own, or his colleagues' professional tomfoolery. Paranoia? maybe. Let's keep an eye on this one.

posted by Jeremy, image kindly zapped from Wellington Sculpture Trust

good old fashioned art beat-up

The world section of the New Zealand herald online today prominently features an art beat-up that conforms to the genre well...

• Eye catching heading: Check - "Swedish train vandalised as part of thesis"
• Lack of information: Check
• Little analysis: Check - "Maybe it was abstract impressionism"
• Use of ridicule and omission to demean a project: Check
  

I don't know enough about this event (due to lack of information) to form an opinion on the merit or otherwise of this student's art work. My point is it's frustrating to see the mainstream media avoid adding to meaningful discussion of the contemporary art stories they feature, instead finding company for ignorance in ridicule. The Barrs have regularly discussed this genre of reporting on their blog overthenet. See their post here about a recent 'my kid could make that' stunt that 60 minutes tried to sucker Enjoy into participating in.

(posted by Paula)
Image: masked man from pitofhorror dot com