Walters Prize winner no sloth

I have just come back from spending lunchtime at the New City Gallery. Felt it was time to get me some culture. The show was, um, interesting. My particular favourite was the spa bath installation. You can sit in the spa in a darkened room and watch the projected artwork. Bathrobes are provided and you must shower before going into the pool. Not your typical artwork. The winning work features a large (life size?) sloth with the title Doomed, Doomed, All Doomed. I thought it was a gibbon to begin with. I went to the zoo with my daughter a couple of weeks back and I have to say that gibbons are quite impressively scary in real life, but this creature, lying prone has a somewhat unsettling effect. I guess that is the point of art. If if doesn't upset your equilibrium then it hasn't achieved anything. Looking at chocolate box paintings that are utterly familiar and immediately forgetable might be art of a kind, but without a challenge then I find it dull. I like a challenge.
Interestingly one of the attendants explained that there was no indication of which was the winning work because that would interfere with one's experience of the art work. So no rosette, no plaque...just a cheque for $50 grand. I could live with that.
The gallery is in a converted telephone exchange. The wood floorboards squeak quite musically. I wonder if that affects one's experience of the art? I rather lke it.

I'm building some web sites at the moment. Quite rudimentary. I don't use Flash - mainly because I can't. There is something pleasing about honest toil. Just doing something with my hands, rather than thinking about strategy or long term outcomes.
I might do a painting of something in the weekend while I am in the groove and feeling jazzed by art.

I have posted a new blog entry on the Idealog magazine website. It is slightly surreal. But I worry that I am getting too serious in my old age.

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