DUH
Things have been quiet. Too quiet. Maybe it's because they know I'm watching, just waiting for the moment when they write something inane, moronic or just plain stupid, waiting for that moment to pounce! And put them on my blog.
But probably not. More likely it's just been quiet. Very little going on in Dumbbell Land lately, I guess. Still, I noticed a couple of things.
She's not even trying any more, is she? Clearly, when one jabbers out gobbledygook like this, one has given up even making perfunctory stabs at coherence. Like "the deprofessionalization of art as a form of professionalization" -- yes, he nodded, that makes perfect sense. And "the idea that unlike earlier times in which only the upper class had time to produce art and text for millions who have no time to view them, now millions of people are creating work for a select few who have no time to view it" -- now incomprehensible in any human language!
I can only hope Paddy hopelessly failed to understand or grasp anything said by Mr. Groys, but considering the talk was of interest to both her and Tom Moody, I honestly don't have the stomach to attempt to read much more.
Keeping Paddy's attempt at writing justified, alas, is the Village Voice, which has listed her blog with 17 other "obsessive, cantankerous, and unstoppable Gotham blogs worth going ape over". Since the Voice has devolved to basically nothing but cheap newsprint for putting under your overbred apartment-sized idiot dog and online softcore porn with a side of limp art criticism, I suppose it shouldn't be shocking when they can't tell their ass from a badly-written blog, but it's still dispiriting. But the list of ridiculous superlatives is 33% correct: So far Art Fag City and the rest have been unstoppable.
Also, Paddy gave this great quote, which is particularly brilliant when juxtaposed with the preceding item in my list: "What I've been trying to do here is make things clear for people who don't spend every living moment in the art world, and give them a set of tools with which to look at contemporary art and engage with it." Uh huh.
Everyone wants to get on the clearfication of complicatinated artstuff for the masseslikepeople wagon of bandness: Joining the cacophony is Leah Triplett who writes, "Perhaps due to its focus on new media art, Younger Than Jesus, was almost completely devoid in painting of quality. By quality, I mean that which stand the test of time because of their enduring reverberation in one’s mind -- if they are made from ephemeral materials or not."
Perhaps, due to its, overuse of commas, this sentence, fails to get its verbs and nouns, to match up. Children raised by wolves have an easier time putting together working statements than that. What, pray tell, is a "comically chilling small-scale oil [painting]?" Is "comically chilling" like "hilariously deadly" or "politely flatulent"?
Perhaps all art writing on the Web has been outsourced to some indigenous Amazon rainforest tribe whose only contact with English is a promo t-shirt for the I Can Has Cheezburger book.
But no, that's just me making up likely-sounding excuses for them. Fact is, they're just bad writers.
And finally, proof that when the art world gets it right, it still gets it wrong: Michael Landy's latest work of art is a giant, transparent bin in which to throw away works of art. There are a number of problems with this piece, towit:
- Artists are being asked to submit works of art. We shouldn't ask artists, we should just throw out their crap.
- The artists being asked are certainly worthy of being binned -- Hirst, Emin, and a few other disasters. Sadly, they've been asked to contribute work they consider failed -- a tall order. How does one tell a failed Emin from a successful one? How unwashed the sheets are?
- The bin -- with a volume of 600 cubic meters -- is transparent. This is huge mistake, since clearly no one in their right mind wants to see any of this crap again.
- Lastly, the bin cannot be put into itself.
Perhaps it's too much to ask for, but maybe Damien's next work can be vitrines containing the bodies of the Young British Artists, himself included.
"they're just bad writers"
Yup.
"the bin cannot be put into itself"
That says it all.
Thank you.
Chris, as you're surely aware, all this Paddy person and the rest of the crowd tagged by the Village Voice have to do to dismiss everything you say, however accurate and on-target it may be, is "sour grapes." And of course, they would say that. It's ever so convenient and efficient. No need to address or defend anything, just go "sour grapes." Works like a charm.
I must say, though, that the bit about "trying to...make things clear for people who don't spend every living moment in the art world, and give them a set of tools with which to look at contemporary art and engage with it" is pretty choice stuff...and nonsense. And I'm being kind, since, unlike you, I don't give a rat's tush about that Fag blog or the Paddy chick. Neither has ever been, or is likely to be, part of my universe.
Ha Ha Ha.
Lastly, the bin cannot be put into itself.
QFT.
Oh, and Chris, you mean Formerly Young British Artists. Let's be chronologically accurate here.
Let me be totally honest for a moment: If my blog got listed in the Village Voice, it would definitely lift my spirits a bit and I'd most likely mention it on my blog. Because it's nice to be noticed, even by a publication I rarely respect. So, in all honesty, let me admit that there might be some flavor of sour grapes in there. Not a lot, but, okay, I'll give you a little.
As for the British Artists Who Are Getting On In Years, they're still called YBAs. It's no longer accurate, but it's stuck. The same way "modernism" can be over a century old.
The people who name these things need to be more careful.
Chris, it makes no difference whether there's any element of sour grapes or not. That's the beauty of it: as long as it sounds at all plausible, it's a great way to evade even the most legitimate criticism. People on the inside can thus always resort to "sour grapes" when challenged by anybody on the outside.
You're absolutely right, Jack. EAG has gone over this more than once. I just wanted to point out that, this time, there was a modicum of truth to the accusation. Which hasn't been made yet anyway.
Probably not worth its own entry in the next installment of Recent Stupidities, but worth mentioning: Today Paddy tsk-tsks about the site Giada's Cleavage which is "repulsive" because of its obsession with the TV host's mammaries. Of course I wonder which is more disrespectful to women in general and Giada in particular: The site that concentrates on her breasts or the site that mentions her by name four times and misspells it every time. Hey, Paddy, do the tiniest bit of research (for example remembering the name of the company that produced the Conan films, among others; or, I don't know, typing it into Google where it name-completes within five characters) and get the lady's name right: It's Giada De Laurentiis.
Chris, please, art bloggers that get invited to panels don't have to bother over such trifles, just as important art world players don't have to bother about conflicts of interest or other bourgeois ethical issues. Really, read the memo sometime.
Now, Jack, you know I don't get memos.
My point here was that Paddy gets all up in arms about respecting women, seeing women as more than just body parts, and so on, and then can't even spell the woman's name right. It's just silly.
Incidentally, she's fixed the spelling now, so if you go to her site you'll see the updated version. No note about the update, of course -- wouldn't want to leave a trail.
Oh, right. Only people who get invited to panels and roundtables and things get memos. I mean, after all, nobody else matters. Never mind.
Uh, Chris, are you dyslexic as well as memo-unworthy? I just followed the link to that Fag place, and Giada is given as "Giadi" twice.
Oh dear. I noticed the last name misspelling. She actually couldn't spell either of Giada's names? That's hot.
Also, the D is capitalized. I check these things. Ever notice how some people can never pronounce some names correctly, even after they've heard them properly? There's a boy in town, I coached him in soccer a few seasons. His name's Shian, from a nice Japanese family. His name is said She (as in the English pronoun) Ahn, short a. Shian, just as it's spelled. Many people insist on calling him Shy-anne, the way you'd pronounce Cheyenne. Incidentally, one season I had Shian and a girl named Cheyenne on my team. That was fun. Anyway, it seems to me once some kid's said to you, "My name's She Ahn," after that you call him "She Ahn", not "Shy Anne". Why so many, many people -- some of them professional educators -- can't manage this I do not know.
It seems a little thing to me to check how someone likes their name spelled and capitalized. But what do I know?
I believe someone is definitely dyslexic, or otherwise dysfunctional, but apparently it's not you (or not just you, at any rate). I suppose Giada De Laurentiis is a little tougher than Mario Puzo, but screwing up both the name and surname multiple times is a bit much. I don't know, maybe the Fag lady has ADD or something.
I'm surprised I missed the error, actually. I have a kind of reverse dyslexia where I can't get past errors. I signed up at Wikipedia just so I can copyedit while I read. And of course I met Franklin when I started sending him corrections for the WDB archive. He's the one who noted my amazing ability to tell a lower case L from a 1 in a sans serif typeface.
I re-read my own posts several times checking for errors. It's harder to edit your own writing, of course, but it's important, too. Especially with people's names.
I guess when I saw she'd fixed the last name I didn't even look at the first name. Bad copyeditor! Bad!
Ifonlyyoucouldputthebininitself...LOL
Excusethelackofspacing.
Icouldblameitonwaterdamagetomykeyboard,butIthinkI'mgoingtoembraceitasastyle.
OrIwillthrowmycomputerinthebintoo.
On kyboard I had onc lost th ky. It's vry hard to typ nglish without th ky.
Do you care about the fact that the very people you are attacking do not leave a comment on this particular thread? I take it back. I am sure you do not.
I noted with some satisfaction that Paddy fixed (some of) her spelling errors shortly after I posted this. Coincidence? Perhaps.
Obviously Michael Landy is from far too rarefied an environment to read this, let alone comment on it. That's to be expected.