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

Mumsnet toilet brush anger could be the title of your second piece OP.

Arty not party friend

I think the mere description of these pieces as art is what alienates most people. Can’t we call it something else?
Like most people, I initially thought ‘what a load of shite’. But it’s the conversation and the thought behind them that is the really interesting position. Not about the aesthetics.
Mitz. You put it in normal, human terms. What does it feel like? What does it evoke? What goes through your mind?

That's exactly the kind of art interpretation I would like to see as standard MitziK, "the artist was thinking about x and y" (themes), maybe a line or two with a very simple explanation of the historical/art context if relevant, followed by questions and other ideas for ways to interact with the work. No artspeak necessary!

Ha ha PcPlums I actually have exhibited a piece of art based on a cleaning in progress sign, clearly I am an old hack

In response to other posters I never once thought to myself I wonder what shit I can get away with sticking in a gallery - maybe this is why I am not rich and famous...

I love them op!
My tablet is wanting to get in on the surrealist arty action, I just did something with the auto-correct swiping and it composed a haiku-

Crown on the lid
meal to
make a seal

You have to read the artist intention to appreciate its visual story. Unfortunately i cant see the dolls so it makes no sense. I agree.

www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/the-weather-project

This was quite a long time ago now but was amazing. I went back about 5 times.

Vitalogy Anger wasn’t my primary emotion when I was working on ‘Toilet brush with flower’. I had a very strong sense of my mortality and the fragility of life.
I’m glad you got something from my work.

PC I feel your recent work lacks the emotional depth displayed in your first installation. Such a shame as I felt you had so much potential

JaneJeffer I’m deeply wounded and I can assure you that a huge amount of emotion went into my recent work.
I was left so emotionally drained that I accidentally cut off my ear 👂
It’s in the freezer and I plan to use it in my next installs

*installation

It is the art of bullshit, which someone is probably getting paid a large amount for. I saw 3 unused canvas's once, which was also supposed to be art.

My favourite ‘piece’ was seen years ago at Tate modern, it was a beer mat ( they kind you’ll find in any pub) with the word coyote written on it in biro.
Now not only could I do that, but I dare say that during the odd moment of boredom during a pub quiz I probably have created similar works if genius whilst mindlessly doodling (in fact my handwriting is better than the artist’s so my art was superior)
I know you could argue that the beer mat had a profound effect as I still remember it many years later but I would argue I still remember most of the words to agadoo many years later & I defy anyone to call that a work if art.

It would make the art more accessible if the pieces were given more context in the gallery to help people like me who find them hard to understand otherwise.

You can usually buy the catalogue (£25-£30, most exhibitions.) If they put much more info than they already do in most galleries, then they risk making it too wordy, and a lot of people would be put off. It's a tricky balance, because you have to cater for so many different visitors.

There's probably always been loads of crap art (at least once paper and canvases and pigments weren't hideously expensive.) It's just most of it will have been binned when someone was doing a spring clean or something.

I was left so emotionally drained that I accidentally cut off my ear 👂
It’s in the freezer and I plan to use it in my next installation

Anymore inspiration today OP? Although I'm sure you're still recovering.

Arsearsearse’s explanation of minimalism is very good. The problem with the work that the OP is ceiticising is not the work, but the label, which is a bit shit. It just describes what you can see, which is of no use to anyone with eyes, rather than explaining the artist’s practice. The poster who was creeped out by the institutional-looking bed head was on the money. Salcedo’s work is about the horrors of the political violence in her home country of Colombia and uses clothing, furniture and other items, often owned by those who were victims, in her work. It’s incredibly powerful stuff and not at all hard to empathise with, if you understand it’s context. The Tate has written a bad label, not surprising when you consider that on their website now their artist information is via Wikipedia

When we last went to Tate Liverpool DS2 was sniggering about a couple of works and DS2 told him to stop "because it's obviously an everyone's a winner kind of place"

That’s so funny serin I love this kind of art because I have had some of the funniest, most animated conversations with my dc at these exhibitions.

I think it's because a certain person created it and the correct people called it art. Then the emperor got new clothes so there was a deep meaningful insight that evoke a profound effect.

Not all modern art is like this of course, so really does stop you in your tracks and make you think. Like PCPlumsTruncheon's second piece. The casual draping of symbol of misogyny over the shackles of manmade drudgery. Deep feeling of being unable to escape due to entrapped from the inaccesable lexicon, a glimmer of hope has been offered to womankind.

I think it’s important to look at when the art was created. I think that the stuff that was made in the fifties and earlier Ian more impressive because the artists were pushing art to a different level in a time when many Victorians would have still been around. It’s less interesting when similar artwork is done today because nobody is shocked, only baffled.

Lalasbigband do the artists not write their own statements?

Ha ha haha ha ha - love it.

Took my middle and youngest son to the Tate Modern this summer they were a bit meh until they found this sort of exhibit 😂

Youngest son’s school has lots of links with the Tate - so he should he used to this sort of stuff but even he was aghast.

Kezzie, not in a museum context. If the artists is living and involved with the display (such as a big survey or retrospective on their work) they would probably have more input, but for a collection display such as at the Tate it is the job of the curators. This label looks to me to be the work of someone inexperienced