Art Festival

There is an Arts Festival in progress at the moment, I am not quite sure what is going on with it all but the greatest evidence is the vast rows of aerial photography positioned on the Strand by a photographer whose name has slipped from my memory (if you are a regular reader you will know that many things slip from my memory). The Photos are very good and generate a great deal of debate among onlookers. The start of the festival coincided with the opening of the new art gallery (the council got this open just before the philistines got elected). There was much controversy surrounding this, with the usual "what a waste of rate payers money and no one will visit it". I am glad to say 8,000 people visited it in its first 3 days . Joyce and I paid it a visit last week, it is a building well suited to the purpose, but what makes or breaks a gallery, is what hangs on the walls. Now I come from the "Emperors new clothes" school of art appreciation, and if I think a piece looks like it was painted by a blind 3 year old having a temper tantrum, then I say so. It does not matter to me if the artist has given it a name like "exploration of transcendental mood in the microcosm of social interaction in d-minor". If it looks like someone has been sick on a canvas then I say so. I am sure someone with an art degree will tell me I am missing the point, but then they would , they have to justify having got into debt to do a degree course in "opinion" at art school. I probably missed the point of another exhibit, it had a fine sounding name, but all I could see was a 6x3 piece of chipboard hanging on the wall, it had been painted black. I initially looked on the floor to see if the exhibit had fallen down, no, perhaps it had been taken away for cleaning, no. The painted chipboard was in fact the exhibit with the poncy name. I suppose that does mean every one of us is an artist in some way, its quite uplifting really, so kids just remember when mum tells you to tidy your room, just tell her it is a work of art in progress and she is stifling your creative juices. I do enjoy looking at art, I have a couple of Van Goughs hanging on the living room wall, one is "sunflowers" the other one is "the one with the cafe scene with the starry sky". Now if you look at the quality of painting, it is pretty crap, and you can see why he didn't sell anything when he was alive, but they have a certain something. (by the way the man in the market said they were genuine and a bargain at a tenner each, I agreed). I seem to be going off at a tangent here, so back to the gallery. Upstairs there was an exhibition of press photos that do not make it into the "propaganda press". Now I love a good photo, it should tell a story and allow you to empathise with the feelings of the people portrayed, all in one shot. These photos did just that, with harrowing scenes of world conflict. A couple of documentaries accompanied the photos, and both Joyce and I spent the afternoon discussing the subjects and emotions covered in the exhibition. The more people who can see this exhibition the better, we all need to be able to step outside of our own "Reality Bubble" once and a while and see what is really happening in the world. A good afternoon and a great start to the life of the Gallery (shame we wont have a museum now though to entertain and inform).