If the weather holds I am off to see the ‘Kelpies’ at Falkirk this Saturday, as my wife has a lifelong passion and love for horses and so it seems the obvious thing to do. I suppose what interests me about these impressive (by photograph) metal structures, is how they polarize opinion on what constitutes ‘ART’. Attached to this blog I have posted five pieces of ‘public art’ made at different times though human history. Are these pieces and many like them ‘ART’? There seems to be a wide held notion that ‘skill’ in sculpting, drawing or painting constitutes art. And, I have to admit , that in my own practice I still at times find myself ‘proving’ that I still have these skills (almost as a bench mark), even though a good swath of my practice would work without them. I know that when I view contemporary art, a good proportion leaves me very unimpressed, cold and disconnected. Yet these large public pieces seem to connect, impress and warm people’s enthusiasm for the creative process. (Whether they are persuaded by marketing to think like this is of course another debate)
In this post, post-modernist world my personal view is that pieces like the Kelpies are only a ‘type’ of art. However, if they serve to promote the creative process amongst the mass population and those who ‘pull the purse strings’ and encourage money to be filtered down to those who create work that asks more questions, both intellectually, politically and visually, then more power to the Kelpies.
P.S. No news from the Open West! No news from Locus Projects! But I have been politely rejected by two commercial galleries in the states. However, I did get my proposal to the Bath Fringe in on time and to a public gallery in Hereford (where is that?!!) Onward and upward!!
