Yesterday I went to see Ed Kienholz’s Hoerengracht at the National Gallery. It’s great fun.
Kienholz was one of only a few artists who understood the true function of art – that is, it should be accessible to everyone, and for the enjoyment of everyone. We’ve all been there, looking at some cube in a room, pretending we get what the explanation on the wall means. The simple fact of the matter is, no-one knows what it means, and therefore no-one cares. It’s irrelvent to our lives.
Hoerengrach at the National Gallery
Hoerengracht invites passers by to explore a life-size reconstruction of Amsterdam’s red light district. It’s reminiscent of those Victorian villages in theme parks, and just as intriguing – except of course a little sadder. In true Kienholz style, everything is thrown together in a brash, painterly way, with grotesque mannequins touting for business in doorways and windows.
Kienholz and his wife Nancy were strangely fixated on this underworld, but also sought to make a social comment on the legalisation of prostitution. The pair, who worked together since the 70s, ignored the art world and instead made the art they wanted the public to see.
I love their boldness and their sheer lack of pretension. Why can’t more artists of my generation take after them?
Emma Thompson’s comments on Exeter University are bound to upset many a student – past and present. It sounds as if her adopted son, who is black, ran into some idiots there who made some nasty comments. That’s disappointing, but the way Thompson was harping on this week, anyone would think the university was a breeding ground for the modern day Klu Klux Klan.
Actress Emma Thompson and Greg Wise with their adopted son Tindyebwa Agaba, 22, at his degree ceremony. Courtesy of SWNS
As an alumni of the university, I can say I too ran into my fair share of idiots there. Thompson’s right; it’s not the most diverse place in the world. On my first day I was astonished to find I was one of only three people from a state school on a corridor of twelve. Later on that year a girl with a plumby accent called me a “pikey” and threw a brick through my window while I was trying to sleep. I would have been angry if I hadn’t been so totally taken aback.
I later decided she was one of a minority of maladjusted individuals who had undoubtedly had quite a strange upbringing. And I went on to have a great time at Exeter. The majority of the people I met were great and the lecturers were amazing.
It’s unfair to tar everyone at the university with the same brush as a couple of crazies. But unfortunately for Exeter, this time the crazies have picked on the wrong guy – the guy with the actress mum.
It’s always amazed me how much influence actors have – I mean, what do they know? They’re good at acting, not achieving world peace. Nevertheless, Emma Thompson has spoken, and Exeter’s reputation for being a green wellie brigade university seems more ingrained than ever.
I just feel sorry for Exeter’s PR team. This one’s going to take years to shake off.
I recently saw Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank, the story of a teenage girl coming of age in an Essex council estate.
It’s a very nicely done film, but it does beg a question. Why do art house films so often feature deprivation when their audiences mainly consist of the intelligentsia of leafy London suburbs?
Is it so far removed from their lives that it’s exciting?
Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank
Watch the trailer here
The Fallout by Andrew Anthony
This week I’m reading Andrew Anthony’s The Fallout: How a Guilty Liberal Lost His Innocence- courtesy of my esteemed colleague Jonny Portlock. It’s delicious in so many ways. Anthony, a Guardian journalist, is the café revolutionary who turned to the dark side.
I’m about 20 years younger than him, but many of my generation can relate to his experience. I was 17 when September 11 happened; later I marched with my student friends against the Iraq war. Back in those days, we didn’t understand the ins and outs of it- but like Anthony, we knew America was evil – for being so- well- Americany.
Needless to say my views have changed since then.
The Fallout is the tale of many a student activist- from the brainwashing by loony leftie lecturers to the unwillingness to actually do anything about the injustices of the world- even if one could.
It’s a bit dark- but it’s made me laugh so much. Click here to check it out.
Doublespeak: George Orwell's 1984 was supposed to be a warning
Fear of crime: a useful thing to have, no? Fear of crime stops me walking down dark alleyways. Fear of crime makes me lock my door at night. In fact, one might say fear is the number one weapon against crime.
So why, then, have police decided to reduce fear of crime- apparently at all costs?
In 2002 the Home Office decided public fear of crime was disproportionate to reality. It blamed the tabloids and set about trying to swing the pendulum back. Now it seems, we are hurtling into some Orwellian scenario where fear of crime is more important that solving the crime itself. What you don’t know can’t hurt you, they’re saying. If you don’t know about crime, it’s almost as if the crime never even took place.
And if the crime never took place, no-one can be criticised for failing to catch the criminal.
As a disclaimer, I’d like to say that many police officers I have met seem to be very decent people. But this strangely dogmatic philosophy of fear of crime seems to have trickled down from above and riddled the entire system. Time and time again I have had the same “fear of crime” mantra quoted back to me as a reason not to give out information on a story. When they utter the phrase, their eyes glaze over like religious zealots on autopilot. You wonder if they actually believe what they’re saying. Perhaps secretly they don’t.
Many crimes are only made public when they go through the courts. I’ve even heard it’s policy in some areas only to put up warning boards at the scene of a crime when someone has died.
Recently, I was shocked to find that Kirk Reid, who was convicted of 24 sexual assaults in Balham, Tooting and Battersea over a 12 year period, actually attacked someone outside my last house. Maybe if the community had been told at the time, some of those women would have been more on guard and spared their ordeal.
The police do a great job and I’m grateful for all that they do. But don’t treat the public like children; tell them what’s going on, and they might even be able to help. 1984 was a warning, not something to aim for.
Sarah Brown, courtesy of the Mail Online
“What surprised me was the Labour MPs,” said my colleague on day two of the expenses chaos. “You don’t expect it from them.”
I disagreed; it only confirmed what I already thought. Look at Sarah Brown- captured in the Daily Mail last September in her £879 outfit. Titled “Brown’s the new black”, Liz Jones’ article explains how Mrs Brown is “doing her bit for British fashion”.
I have a very similar outfit I picked up in H&M for just over a tenner- and to be fair, it looks a tad classier. But on a less vacuous note, if it really is true she spent £879, was she not embarrassed? She’s the wife of a man who claims to be a socialist and who was at the time leading the country down into a terrible recession.
That kingly figure is more than two month’s rent for me. Should those in power really be flaunting their wealth in this way when the rest of us are wondering whether we can afford Nescafe Gold Blend coffee?
Mrs Brown may not be as bad as those we read about last week, who took advantage of the system for their own financial gain. But she needs to have some sensitivity. There’s hardly a woman in Britain who doesn’t love clothes, but with many losing their jobs, now is hardly the time for the PM’s wife to be flaunting her designer gear.
Some still cling onto the romance of Labour being a “people’s party”, but it’s sadly just not true. They need to get down from their ivory towers quickly- or the voters will do it for them.
about what I’m going to write? It’s going to be good.
