Please try and explain to me why this is art.

[PCPlumsTruncheon]

I don’t claim to understand art at all and I am totally not in the ‘all modern art is rubbish’ camp. I love Tracey Emin’s stuff and I try to be open minded about cultural stuff.
I went to the Tate Modern yesterday and saw this. My immediate feeling was ‘Why the fuck is in one the world’s most visited art galleries followed by ‘I could do that’.
I’m not looking to be persuaded that I should like it - there was stuff that I saw that wasn’t my thing but I could still appreciate it IYKWIM

I can't see the rubber dolls or intestines? If they were there it would all make sense :o

Yes, you could do this, as could gazillions of other people. But you and the gazillion are not part of the institution known as the artworld and therefore what you produce is not "art". Or so says the Institutional Theory of art.

Last time we went to Tate Liverpool one of the exhibits was a navy blue jumper stapled to a wall.

The Guggenheim Bilbao had a wardrobe with screwed up newspaper in the bottom.

I have long come to the conclusion that I was NOT rubbish at art at school or a scruffy teen. I was merely ahead of my time as an unappreciated modern artist

I enjoy a lot of modern art, it's often humorous and/or thought-provoking but there are many installations that leave me thinking much the same as you PCPlum. Those bricks - WTF were they all about?! And the Turner Prize is notorious for exposing some doozies such as manky old fur coats draped on the back of chairs. But because they are part of the artworld (ie went to art school, didn't just throw a manky coat on a chair after a night out) they are considered art.

And it's just lazy not to give a pice of 'art' work a name! Untitled my arse. Untalented more like.

I agree with you OP, it's a pile of crap questionable.

I once went to an art gallery and one of the exhibits was a video of a man jumping up and down shouting 'no'.

The fabulous Grayson Perry wrote a great book called Playing To The Gallery which really helped explain things like that to me. It's not a long book, so I'd recommend it

You must have to imagine the dolls tied with pig intestine - all part of the 'experience' I think.

It's not art and I wouldn't want it in my livingroom, no.

I remember going to an exhibition at the Tate in Liverpool where there was mouldy bread (or toast?) on the floor. People kept tutting and trying to pick it up to throw in the bin

Eh? Isn't that just a portable decorating platform. Are you sure you were in a gallery space open to the public?

Mind you I did attend the Glasgow School of Art degree show one year and there was a post-it on the wall. 'Back in 5 minutes'. I'm still trying to work out whether that was the piece of art.

That's a coat rack or something isn't it? I don't see the melted dolls

The Saatchi brothers and their ilk have got a lot to answer for.

Have you been to the Pompidou in Paris?

Lots of crap in there you'd think they dragged in rubbish from the streets of Paris.

It's confusing isn't it Lizzie? I'm never sure if the bins are exhibits or can I throw my sweetie wrappers in them

I mean it created enough of an impression on you that you felt you had to share it and you're probably not going to forget it anytime soon so...

but you didn't

Oh my. Once I'd stopped laughing reading the descripton, I clicked on the picture. I want to see the dolls!

It looks like a cattle crush.

It’s not Art. It’s a pile of old shite.

I took DSs to the Tate Modern a few years ago. We thought "WTF" at a lot of the stuff in there. DS2's favourite was one which appeared to have dead crows nailed to a wall.

It looks like something of a diy Facebook group

Fair play to the artist if they've managed to sell this stuff though!

I went to art school. It can be symbolism, meaning, expression, to evoke feelings. There's only so many landscapes or people you can draw before it's the same shit all over again. Instead of seeing something and instantly thinking it's beautiful, art is also there to make you think less narrowly.

Maybe you'd have to be studying art or interested in discussing/arguing art to find this stuff pleasing.

Well it's evoked feelings in me, feelings of despair at how that shite can be art!!!