Smart Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 interNational Art Hate Week needs you Today marks the first day of National Art Hate Week. A seething critical mass that sprang, initially at least, from the hands of Billy Childish, prolific painter, poet, punk and self-proclaimed hero of the British art resistance movement. Childish was also Tracey Emin's former lover and the founder – now ex-member – of Stuckism, a sizeable art movement best-known for protesting on the steps of Tate Modern to demand more contemporary figurative art; Childish left at the first hint of his idea manifesting itself into an actual, physical demonstration. It's this concept of disorganised, ramshackle creativity that's key to National Art Hate Week: "I was making a series of new posters and just liked the way the words 'art' and 'hate' fitted together," Childish says, perhaps a mite disingenuously. The notion of turning the slogan into a national week apparently didn't occur until Steve Lowe, "chief engineer" of the L-13 Light Industrial Workshop gallery, and Jimmy Cauty, former half of art pop agitators the KLF, collaboratively spurred him on. Lowe's independent art space opened just a couple of months ago in London, set up as a "private ladies and gentlemen's club for the disruptive betterment of culture". And, aside from creating acid house pop smashes in What Time is Love and Justified and Ancient, Cauty famously set fire to £1m in cash in 1994, on a remote Scottish island with his KLF partner, Bill Drummond. Counter-cultural subversiveness seems ingrained in their psyches, and the three of them are well-positioned to unleash a manifesto declaring art war. Where public opinion holds the likes of the Tate and National Gallery to be repositories of artistic value, National Art Hate Week largely considers them vacuous factories of business and bureaucracy. The idea, says Childish, is to give the UK's art institutions "a necessary kicking" by calling for the public to stage a silent revolt and visit a local gallery to actively hate its contents. "Take George Orwell's two-minute Morning Hates in 1984, where soldiers would shoot off a couple of raging rounds above the trenches each day, and you get the point of what National Art Hate Week should inspire." They deny it's anything so concerted as a movement, or even an event: the point is to take a closer, more honest look at what's on show in public galleries and be unafraid to loathe it violently. With prejudice. "Only 20 years ago, people would have been outraged by this fourth plinth charade," says Childish of One and Other, Antony Gormley's populist project in Trafalgar Square. "Now, the public are robotically complicit with a manipulative elite who make culture homogenous and hateful." Would he consider going on the plinth to promote his cause? "Not even hypothetically. Not if I was allowed to. Why would I want to do something I had permission for?" Childish's Constructivist-leaning posters – filled with neatly-lined graphic blocks and pre-war propaganda motifs – are available for free download to distribute in the thousands outside local galleries. Lowe, who specialises in acerbic asides on what he terms "the business of culture", has mobilised the mailing lists of his gallery and the British Art Resistance (the trio's side project, fostering National Art Hate Week), to spread the message each day this week. They believe their campaign of sustained hate will liberate the public and that National Art Hate Week will shatter the common consensus on artists such as Andy Warhol, Peter Doig, Pablo Picasso. "Galleries claim they're challenging us [the public] – we're challenging their challenge," says Lowe. Participants will be encouraged to be honest about work they find "boring and hateful", otherwise deemed stimulating and interesting by curators. Childish, Lowe and Cauty will be marking their silent protest on the steps of London's Tate Modern on Wednesday morning, handing out posters to passersby. Both keen and disinterested consumers of art will be primary targets, claims Lowe. "They need to be aware that hate can be good – especially when the art on view isn't." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a/s/l? Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 wut? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lil_spenty Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 ART = GAY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRILLionare Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 a painter who hated art? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KINGSHITOFFUCKMOUNTAIN Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 there needs to been a yawning smiley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
absolute.despair Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 there needs to been a yawning smiley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spaceman Spiff Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 Self described artists are assholes. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soup Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soup Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soup Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reuben Kinkaid Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 Punk Rock at the British Legion Hall is a fucking great album though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smart Posted July 22, 2009 Author Share Posted July 22, 2009 there needs to been a yawning smiley Says 'all capsy' who registered less than a year ago... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soup Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 a painter who hated art? If you don't get it, It's an artist thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
De sign Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
absolute.despair Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 lol cat *fixed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_gooch Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 "klf's gonna rock ya...." that's my input. i hate art only cause i suck. so i am all for it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R@ndomH3ro Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 a painter who hated art? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Picky P. Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 hate speech is hate speech...my $.02 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KINGSHITOFFUCKMOUNTAIN Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 Says 'all capsy' who registered less than a year ago... Yeah my names is all capsy. So what? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swindle Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 omfg billy childish is a moron. he hates art but got all up in arms when damien hurst made some commercial pieces purely for financial gain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lil_spenty Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 ART SHOULDNT EVEN BE A WORD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smart Posted July 22, 2009 Author Share Posted July 22, 2009 Yeah my names is all capsy. So what? I google image searched "what indeed..." Google says: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrChupacabra Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 WHOA, AN ARTIST WHO HATES ON OTHER ARTISTS! HOW CUTTING EDGE AND NEW! LETS HAND OUT FLYERS AND REALLY SHOW THE PUBLIC THAT OUR OPINIONS ARE MORE VALID THAN ANYONE ELSES! YEAH! GREAT WORK TEAM, WE'RE REALLY MAKING A DIFFERENCE! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllTheWrongWords Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 Self described artists are assholes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ANGELDUST Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 its cool to hate art. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swindle Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 WHOA, AN ARTIST WHO HATES ON OTHER ARTISTS! HOW CUTTING EDGE AND NEW! LETS HAND OUT FLYERS AND REALLY SHOW THE PUBLIC THAT OUR OPINIONS ARE MORE VALID THAN ANYONE ELSES! YEAH! GREAT WORK TEAM, WE'RE REALLY MAKING A DIFFERENCE! well lets see, Billy Childish called this piece "everything that is wrong with the british art scene" by Damien Hirst then Billy Child went and made this; Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soup Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 It's a JOKE. SATIRE. CRITICISM presented in a veil of IRONY. And you cant compare a satirical propaganda poster to dead shark in a tank. They're totally different animals of artwork. It's like comparing mushrooms to valium. One makes you think, the other looks cool and zones you out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smart Posted July 22, 2009 Author Share Posted July 22, 2009 aw yah rerntit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lil_spenty Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 CLOSE THREAD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swindle Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 It's a JOKE. SATIRE. CRITICISM presented in a veil of IRONY. And you cant compare a satirical propaganda poster to dead shark in a tank. They're totally different animals of artwork. It's like comparing mushrooms to valium. One makes you think, the other looks cool and zones you out. actually the shark is not just to look cool its supposed to represent life and death and how humans want to preserve everything and live longer what im trying to say is Billy Childish's biggest arguement was "thats not art, anyone can make that" to which Damien Hirst replied "yeah, but you didn't" (seriously) now billy childish is all look at me im being ironical and making clever posters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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