art for one
(Don't worry, I wouldn't call this art either)
Attention all artists: stop the inconsequential discussion with yourselves in the secluded and singular vacuum World Of One. The reason nobody understands what you’re doing is very simple to explain: your work doesn’t mean anything to anyone but you. This is not public art. It’s not even contextual art. It’s Art for One. I hope you liked it, because the rest of us passed it right by.
In the June/July issue of Art World, Anna Barriball describes her recent time-based project in this way: “I like using things that have fallen between the cracks in some way, making the invisible visible.” What’s she’s talking about is a series of text-based posters she’s made for the London Underground that use very short and featureless phrases in place of visuals. One of the text reads, “on way to birthday party”. Another: “I think I’m being watched”.
I remember seeing the latter not too long ago. Those that use the London Underground will probably agree with me that the first thing on anyone’s mind while using the underground is, where’s the exit. I’m usually placing full concentration on avoiding the push and pull of the stinking masses, while stepping over their left-behind detritus. When I’m dodging people on the platform at Kings Cross, the last thing on my mind is art. Especially art I have to work to understand. Even the masses of sudoku gamers couldn’t be bothered.
Barriball goes on to say that these un-imaginative phrases were taken from the back of photographs, and she wanted them to be experienced in the present. Her hope is that they trigger people’s memories or immediate experiences. Her hope is misplaced by an underground mile. The only thing they’re going to trigger is hunger satiation for rats after midnight.
I don’t know which is worse, this specific and pointless concept, or Art World for wasting valuable paper and ink.