When did art become so fake? For the longest time I have travelled to the Western Australian Art gallery, and there is so little that can be said about the place any more.
It seems that 'art' has really just become a matter of who you know, and who decides your art is worth acknowledging. To be fair, there is always a certain amount of necessity within the artistic community to have figures who can certify the greatness of some works; however what I saw today was the perfect example of the shameful effect pretentious ideas have on artistic production.
At the moment there is an exhibition by Patricia Piccinnini, and it is just HORRIBLE. I know that some may say she is trying to make a point, and I understand that entirely, but how many nasty sculptures does it take to make that point? Here's an image of one of them.
"We are, behind every human pretense of clothing etc simply animals surviving"; of course there are multiple readings of any artwork, but the exhibition as a whole was undoubtedly aiming for a message something along those lines (If I am wrong, well, Ms Piccinini hasn't succeeded unfortunately). SIGH. A good message to have if you thought of it yourself; but this thinking has been around for years and has been explored in umpteen artworks prior.
The greatest tragedy of this whole exhibition is that Piccinini has such astounding talent for sculpture, but has wasted it creating so many hideous installments. One or two I could understand but an entire gallery full is just a waste of time and talent. Just as Picasso ended wasting his talent for the sake of a few socialite followers, Piccinini is wasting her talent on overdone statements for the sake of publicity. Surely Ms. Piccinini has something original to say? People will be drawn to her works by the extreme detail in their execution, so gaining an audience for a new social comment would be no problem for her. Statements about current issues, perhaps ones unique to Australia (where she hails from) could be very interesting. There's plenty going on around us each day that provides new creative fuel; so artists, please, please, PLEASE just look at something that comes from your own head!
