The Tate Modern

[UnquietDad]

Was in London for work this week and managed a quick pop to the Tate.

Liked a lot of the dadaist and surrealist stuff, but come on, some of it, esp. the minimalism is really taking the piss.

I mean, this, FFS It may be a cliche but my 5-year-old DS really could have done it.

They're filling in "the Crack" right now so the Turbine Hall is empty. I wanted to ask if the filling-in was itself an act of art.

I also had a really HORRID blueberry muffin which was the texture of sandpaper and fell apart on the plate in nasty little bits. I was thinking of giving it free to Nicholas Serota and entitling it "Hunger". It was a profound exploration, I thought, of the interface between the eating and the eaten, and invited the observer to reflect on the fundamental dichotomies and hypocrisies of the affluent world's attitude to waste.

well he didn't put it in a flask but vito acconci did wank, to camera once

so your money is safe

and he put in quite a lvt of effort as i recall

if efforts what matters

You see, people can't get away with this sort of thing in literature. Yes, there are many, many novels which are rubbish, but they are rubbish which someone has actually had to sit at their word-processor and bang out. Even if they just did it off the top of their head it will have taken months. A decent, well-crafted novel can take years to write.

Of course I do... I just have my own ideas about what's well-composed!

oh I love Rothko....

yes it was late ish 80's

i was at university in liverpool -i think that exhibition has as much effect on me as my four years of study

yep. Me too. I recall the Dali telephone with a lobster as hand-set on the way in. Remember being troubled by this as the description infomed me this was a reference to female genetalia. I wasn't very 'experienced' at this time. Dali confused me totally. The bastard.

pan did you study in liverpool?

yes, love the place! Did economics/Soviet Politics. But this was 1980-83. Went back later to see the Exhibition.

The genius that is Dali

I LOVE the tate Modern, and I really like Rothko too.
Sorry unquite, but it reallt p's me off when people say my 5 yr old could do that.
That isn't the point.
Yopur 5 yr old probably makes some great pictures.
Rothko could also draw representationally, but didn't choose to in this instance.
His paintings are beautiful in their own right, and the placing of colours and the feelings and emotions that can evoke, is as valid as producing a realistic representation in my book.

aaaah! actually popped over yesterday to see friends (they are on the Wirral now!) Edge Lane looked positively posh compared to my days (86-93)

Used to live on Ivanhoe rd off lark lane amongst less salubrious locations!

northern refugee i agree - years ago i did try to replicate a Rothko hmmm - not one of my greatest ideas!

yes LArk Lane was a little oasis. Lived in Oxton over the water, Edge Lane, Toxteth and Smithdwon Road, Wavertree. Wonderful memories.

yes smithdown toxteth and wavetree my first child was born in oxford rd hosp (now gone)

Oxton is a bit posh!

3rd year for Oxton. Big old house near the Castle pub. We were all fed up of living in shit places. But it cost.

hello northern ! yes, you are right there !

Bmc/pp
i lived above the masonic on lark lane for a year or two
its trying to be chi chi these days, but the protection rackets still linger

Am still in the European Capital of Drinking Culture. I infinitely prefer TATE Liverpool to Modern

nice, mazzy. Hated leaving the place, but family/relationship meant I had to. Am coming back to the Empire as dd is in a dance show there in July, so we could make a weekend of it. Intrigue her bore her to death with the place!!

Sorry, nothing to do with the Tate Modern but I used to live on Lark Lane above the pizza place! I love, love, love Lark Lane - is 'Keith's' still there?

Patsy

oh yes, Keith's is still going, although its not quite the same somehow now the smoking ban is in place. Me and dh had our first official date in Keith's

Pan, how long is it since you've been here? I think you'll find it quite changed physically but not in spirit.

UD, you said:
"I love the idea of a totally empty room in which there is NOTHING being presented as art. The ultimate modernist, minimalist con-trick. You could sell it as "an exploration of the interface between observer and observed... the audience itself is the art..." "

The national gallery did something like this, in a more burlesque manner a few years ago. They had a hidden camera over famous little painting that people were flocking to see. In another room you could view the peolec elbowing in to look at the painting on a big screen. I was wondering why some youngsters were dancing around making lewd gestures at the painting..... Found the explanation soon enough.

But regards to Rhotko and other modernist artists, I agree. I proudly present my childrens paintwork in frames around the house together with my other artwork, most notably framed serene nature photographs, close ups of sandformations and mist over sea on long shutterspeed, lol, and Indian art, with great success!

There has been occasions where visitors dont realize it is my childrens artwork, and will study it with great enthusiasm. It is all down to our preconception of what we have been told art is, and how we chose to present it. Had I pinned it up on a notice board, people would for sure recognise it as my toddlers work!

oooh. About 10 years?? I passed through once and saw the "St Johns" shopping market/thing taht wasn't there the previous time I was there. So long as they haven't distrurbed the 3 Graces at all, or the bombed out church, or the rude man at Lewis's, or the Vine pub across the road, or infact anything else, I'll be happy!