This was one of the highlights of the saatchi gallery in the old county hall. I was loathe to add to the multi-millionaires coffers by paying the exorbitant entry fee but the cheery Doug waving his clipboard was such a good talker he could convince coal miners that the dust was indeed a powerful aphrodisiac. He also said we'd get a free T-shirt each which clinched it as we were rapidly running out of clothes! Hazel and I had wanted to see Richard Wilson's room full of sump oil for some time and this seemed the ideal opportunity being in "tourist mode" and keen to see what old Charlie had spent his money on lately. Mostly it was very bad paintings and some interesting sculpture including a whirling lightbulb in a cage ( can't rememeber the artist) which threw crazy shadows onto the gallery walls as it whizzed round. The Hirsts and Emins were as dull as they look in the tabloids. Other favourites included work by Ron Mueck, especially "Mask" which is incredibly detailed and scowls at you like a huge giant's head and Grayson Perry's daft and rude vases covered in graffiti and transvestites.
Monday, August 23, 2004
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7 comments:
A room flooded in sump oil?! Whew! Now what was the appeal of it? Well, I have to admit free t-shirts might do the trick. Really don't care for Damien Hirst's works either, especially the exhibit at the Cube. Tracey Emin I find interesting...combination of feminine, raw, & outrage. We have one of her books, autographed..not bad. Can't imagine poor Hazel delegated to the lugguage rack-luckily she's agile & adaptable! Good shot, by the way, of the "oil room". I like the contrast, lines in it. Could silk screen your own t-shirt & have a cool image.
Yes, not sure it was worth the price of admission but interesting to see all that Brit Art as we missed the Sensation show at the RA when it was on. It all seems rather lame and tired now and probbaly did back then too! Some of the recent aquisitions were really hideous! The man obviously has no taste but a heap of money to throw around. The T-shirts were cheap mass produced rubbish too like the works of ART!
The sump oil was only infact 3 or 4 inches deep but fely like it was three or four feet! The smell was incredible- you could get a whiff of it as soon as you walked through the front door of the gallery. It gave you a very strange feeling of giddiness seeing the room reflected in the oil and being in the middle- very odd.
Oops...somewhere out there in cyberland is a comment I made bout seeing the John Currin show at the saatchi. Wrong! Had in mind the Sepertine!
Sump'n strange if that's art,
oil be bound...
Hah! Good one Roger! Reminds me of the Doors' "People Are Strange"!
A lovely song. maKES ME VERY nostalgic for manchester in the 60's when I was a mop top at the art school- one of the very first american "psychedelic" records I ever heard. I used to hear it seeping in from the room next door. I eventually bought my own copy last year, from a charity shop!
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