Unnecessary Delusions: Central Saint Martins
MA Fine Art interim Exhibition 2010 – Necessary Illusions was a recent show by Central Saint Martins college students at the Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf – Friday 29th – Sunday 31st January 2010… Definitely not to be confused with Noam Chomsky’s ‘Necessary Illusions’ (1989) analysis of the function of “modern era” news media in the United States… which probably has a good deal more interesting content.This collection was promoted as ‘complex and multilayered, reflecting the diverse experiences of the students’ showcased the developing work of 63 MA Fine Artists graduating in September 2010.
My criteria for evaluating any work is now based on the three e’s of enjoyment, education and envy… That is to say I like it, I want to learn something from it (technical or aesthetic) and that I have an underlying wish that I had done it myself. One out of three is good… two out of three is exceptional… a full compliment and my senses are clearly set on overload.
However, sadly this show provided no sensory engagement for me in the slightest. The work (intentional or otherwise) related rather grubbily to the decrepit state of the building. If this was the intention, the one-trick pony provided scant reward for viewers. If you saw the show and enjoyed it, you are probably a contributor to criticalism.org/news/necessary-illusions which first quotes Friedrich Nietzsche and then completely loses it in a sea of arty-fartyness. You must login if you want to post a comment. Me? I couldn’t be arsed.
I went to the Bargehouse to be inspired but I just ended up hugely disappointed. For some people, I’m sure there was a ‘connection’. I surmise that your enlightenment could only have come either after a deep conversation with the ‘artist’ or upon reading a documented explanation of most pieces. Simply because an artist hides something, it is too frequently assumed that the ‘something’ is deep, profound and meaningful. I have generally found quite the opposite to be true.
In 1917 Roger Fry wrote…
“… the artist of the new movement is moving into a sphere more and more remote from that of the ordinary man. In proportion as art becomes purer the number of people to whom it appeals gets less “
It’s official, I’m ordinary? But wait, ‘as art becomes purer’? Well, some of it wasn’t art and it definitely wasn’t pure – read ‘it’s not big and it’s not clever’.
Emerging from the dank and lifeless environment into the riverside air, I felt short-changed by the lack of content and substance in the works on show. The public will forever struggle to understand hidden concepts and self-indulgence as long as faceless art school tutors continue to condone and shamelessly encourage similar work from ill-conception, through poor execution to gallery cul-de-sac.
Rather than spewing out further streams of mindless and selfish individuals with little sense of responsibility, we should be encouraging our fine art students to question their work a little more rigorously and dare I say it, impose just a tad of discipline along the way. David Byrne talking about creativity in a recent ‘TateShots Podcast’ said…
“I always enjoyed working within restrictions. Too much freedom to do anything you want and you end up flopping on the ground like a fish. You can’t make a decision, there’s too many options”
If the art school tutors don’t have the guts to inject more honesty into their teaching and pass on a greater common sense of reality, our beached whale students will need to start thinking for themselves… not such a bad thing.
Hi Max,
I wrote a review for the same show but came to slightly different conclusions…(please take a look at blog link if you fancy it). Did agree with some of the stuff you say at the end of this though: possibly because I fear I fall into the “beached whale student” category also…
Sophie… Thank you for the link to you blog; I read it with interest, which is substantially more than I can say for the show. Your article is quite detailed and I think the content in your post provides an even clearer reason why I failed to get anything from the time invested at Bargehouse.