A rchive Date
[ 09-06-2000 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[It's either art - or garbage
By MICHAEL COREN
Sun Media
June 8, 2000
I have made it something of a hobby to keep abreast of developments in the art world. We live in an insane society, but nowhere is lunacy more strident than in our galleries and art schools. Here the pretentious run amok and the foolish rule.
In Britain the highly revered Royal Academy is running an exhibition called Apocalypse. It features a model of Pope John Paul the Great being hit by a falling meteorite, a video made at a Nazi death camp and, quite literally, a pile of garbage.
The latter is under constant guard because people keep throwing their own garbage on the thing. Some because they hate it and others because they assume the work of art is simply, well, simply a pile of garbage. Which it is. But according to the artists behind the work this "dents the integrity of the piece." Quite so.
The exhibit also includes an enormous swastika, a large metal rabbit and the now apparently obligatory collection of homoerotic photographs. Interesting how the Pope is a constant target at these galleries. Makes one proud to be a Roman Catholic.
Over in California, at the San Franciso Art Institute, the issue of free speech is being debated. The centre of the controversy is one Jonathan Yegge, who is "shocked and appalled" that his work has been censored and who has assembled quite a following of people who support him.
"My work is an exploration of the master-slave dialectic in Hegel, and it's firmly rooted in the classical western tradition," says Yegge. "It's absolutely outrageous that it should have been banned."
The 46-year-old artist's piece consists of the following. A man is blindfolded, has his hands tied behind his back and is placed in front of a video camera. Then Yegge performs various sexual acts on the willing figure, and these are reciprocated. These acts include the mutual consumption of each other's bodily waste.
"It was pure Hegelian dialecticism," defended Yegge. "Thesis, antithesis and synthesis."
Even so, the gallery to which he presented the video footage, or "living art," refused to accept it, leading to demonstrations outside its office. A representative of the gallery told the press, "We felt it was dangerous, both morally and medically."
One of Yegge's main supporters responded that this was "just a knee-jerk response from a bunch of philistines who know nothing. They should realize that we are the future. Van Gogh faced the same."
The Dutch master cut off his ear lobe, of course, in a moment of madness. Goodness knows what Mr. Yegge might try to amputate when he becomes upset. One can only hope there is a video camera present at the time.
Here in Canada, I have seen in publicly funded galleries pictures of men being crucified in bizarre acts of sado-masochism, accompanied by full-size racks and other instruments of sexual bondage and torture. When I laughed out loud I was told to be quiet, as "real art requires concentration."
I have seen an enormous photograph of a naked woman pulling a piece of paper between her legs. Underneath the photo was the paper itself, covered in dried menstrual blood. It was accompanied by an explanation of the purpose of the exhibit, none of which seemed to be in understandable English.
I have seen an entire wall of a Toronto gallery taken up with what appeared to be dozens of children's drawings of penises. When I asked the person in charge what it all meant I was told I was "obviously unsympathetic to the spirit of the event" and was then ignored.
A final point about a different but if we think about it, extremely related matter. During the funeral of the great Rocket Richard, Cardinal Turcotte of Montreal referred to the Rocket's wonderful marriage. The Cardinal used the word "spouse" to describe Richard's wife.
Yet oddly enough when the CBC translated this into English, the people's network used the term "partner." Now this is a quite different word in French, just as it is in English, and it has a completely different connotation. Business people have partners, men have spouses. And Maurice Richard was a real man, with a real spouse. And they both liked real art.
Michael Coren is a Toronto-based writer and broadcaster Letters to the editor should be sent to editor@sunpub.com
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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