Monday, December 04, 2006

Why I like Germaine Greer

Plain English? Naah, it's the details, innit.

As the discontinuity concept is fundamental to understanding what the best of today's artists are up to, it's worth explaining again. Art detaches itself from the unsynthesised manifold by a number of strategies. It may take refuge in a dedicated space called a museum or a gallery, where it may not be touched or moved. It may be surrounded by a barrier, put upon a plinth, enclosed in a frame or a moat of white paper - whatever. To understand this is to understand why installation is such an important consideration in the contemporary art project. It was Kant who explained that the art object exists only as the concept of itself, all its other sensory qualities being associated with pleasure or desire and therefore ulterior.

I can still remember the excitement of reading the Critique for the first time 50 years ago, and basking in the glow of Kant's beautiful mind. Chrissie and Ben can take their Golden Bull award and stuff it.


the full monty ...