14 October 2007

Something you can't look at in an art space



In July I went to see a friend in the final performance pieces of the class of 2007 Leeds Uni Theatre Group, and one of the pieces raised what I take to be a similar point to Richard Prince at this year's Frieze Art Fair - a point about art spaces। In the (Leeds) piece, which was more a live installation than anything - the refusal of the ‘characters’ to cross in to the usual space between them and the audience emphasized the voyeuristic aspect of being in an audience -there was a young lady, on a pedestal, getting undressed. And the 'audience' were, mostly, clearly uncomfortable to be seen looking. Hesitating to be seen looking at a young, getting-naked thing. There were other 'characters', on other pedestals, doing other things: someone holding a chocolate ice cream aloft and not letting his grin falter as it melted down his arm, someone doing a repeated series of yoga-ish stretches, someone soliloquizing grandiloquently on why she was amazing - all weird things, but all 'easier' to look at than this girl taking off her clothes. Something you (this theatre audience) didn't want to be seen to be looking at. Something you can look at in the anonymous confines of porn sites, or at a car show, or in your night dreams. Something you can't look at in the paid for sanctity of a shared art space...



What I take to be a witty point. A point worth making?

Also, Frieze is “so Capitalist its Marxist” but who cares? Culture is relentlessly commercialised, art shouldn't not be a part of culture. Well, at least not always...

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