Art is Rubbish: Recycling materials and ideas
Last week there was an exhibition in Leeds entitled Art is Rubbish http://www.artisrubbish.co.uk at Flannels which is a department store and cafe-restaurant. On the top floor is an odd little exhibition space run by Leeds City College. Art is Rubbish was organised by design consultancy WPA Pinfold as a “chARiTy” event to raise money for Aid to Hospitals Worldwide.
The exhibition title blatantly playing to a 20th century tabloid view of “modern art is rubbish,” made me suspicious. Then I checked out the website.
I didn’t recognise any of the artists on the bill, which in itself isn’t anything unusual, especially presuming it was a student show and these artists might not have shown ever before.
But the work was strangely familiar. http://www.artisrubbish.co.uk/#art Here are a few of the instantly recognisable ones:
John Atkin – Union Jack http://www.artisrubbish.co.uk/assets/img/gallery/a… (Tony Cragg http://www.henry-moore.org/images/o_postcard_flag_union_jack_0_0.jpg )
John Atkin – To a ‘T’ http://www.artisrubbish.co.uk/assets/img/self-port… (Andy Warhol)
Stuart Morey – No Oil Painting http://www.artisrubbish.co.uk/assets/img/self-port… (Julian Opie)
Richard Hurst – Work in Progress http://www.artisrubbish.co.uk/assets/img/self-port… (Banksy – Cardinal Sin http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16197214 )
Kerry Kane – QR Codes http://www.artisrubbish.co.uk/assets/img/self-port… (Scott Blake – Barcode Portraits http://www.barcodeart.com/artwork/portraits/index.html )
Myles Pinfold – 24 Carat Gold Dustbin http://www.artisrubbish.co.uk/assets/img/gallery/a… (Sylvie Fleury http://earthandi.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/goldenbin.jpg )
Emma Rutherford – A Bright Idea http://www.artisrubbish.co.uk/assets/img/gallery/a… (Allison Patrick http://the3rsblog.wordpress.com/ )
Hayley Wall – One I Made Earlier http://www.artisrubbish.co.uk/assets/img/gallery/a… (Yuken Teruya http://www.yukenteruyastudio.com/ )
Simon Henshaw – Ubiquitous http://www.artisrubbish.co.uk/assets/img/gallery/a… (Joseph Cornell / Jasper Johns)
A Brooke Pinfold & Sue Kirsch – Chair of Nails http://www.artisrubbish.co.uk/assets/img/gallery/a… (Man Ray http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/%27Cadeau%27_by_Man_Ray%2C_iron_and_nails%2C_Tate_Modern.JPG ) – Ironically these artists claim to have been inspired by Duchamp’s Fountain as opposed to more obvious works.
I wonder how and why these artists/students have been encouraged to make and sell works that are so heavily “inspired” by other well-known artists? The old idiom that nothing is new and all ideas are eventually recycled, reappropriated and reproduced is true to a certain extent, but these are examples in the extreme. Have their tutors encouraged a copyist approach or simply not pointed out the striking resemblances and “accidental plagiarism” of what their students are making? I’m not sure which is worse.
