Ongoing 40:Annotated Version

It occured to me this morning that perhaps not everybody is as familiar with the works of the artists mentioned in my last poem as I am. So here is the post again, but this time with some explanatory notes.

It seems I've missed a couple of these out. So here's one I wrote a couple of months ago. The doodle is of a couple of people in an art gallery. It inspired, if that's the best word, a series of short poems - nursery rhymes really - about various modern artists.




Exhibition

Tracy Emin sewed a tent
With every lover's name.
I'm not suspicious minded but
When it went up in flame
I couldn't help but wonder which
Of them should take the blame.

Rachel Whiteread had a house.
She turned it inside out
By filling up with concrete mix -
A prize winner no doubt,
That had the added benifit
Of keeping burglars out.

Paintings made with added dung -
The work of Chris Ofilli,
And some among the critics yawned
Proclaiming it too silly.
But they will burn like billy-o
If the weather should turn chilly.

Damien Hurst displayed a cow
He'd cut up with a knife
And in the world of art today
That kind of thing is rife.
It would have been a better trick
To bring it back to life.

Mark Wallinger, he walked around
A gallery at night.
To make sure he was seen there
He turned on every light
And dressed up as a bear.
Some said, "That bloke's not right."

Martin Creed turned off the lights
And then he turned them on.
Then off, then on, then off, then on.
Some said it was a con.
And when he left them on, at last,
His audience was gone.


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Verse 1. Tracy Emin is an artist who is probably best known for the piece "My Bed" in which she recreated an extremely untidy bed and bedroom as an installation piece. It met with howls of derision from the popular press and from people who think that art is "paintings of things". Another of her pieces was a tent on which she put the names of everyone she had ever slept with. This piece, along with others, was destroyed when a fire burnt down the warehouse where it was being stored. Cynics suspected that one of the lovers had done it to get rid of the evidence.

Verse 2. Rachel Whiteread is another controversial winner of the Turner Prize. Her installation was made by filling a house with concrete, letting it set and then removing the house. It was a negative space concept piece and had the usual mixed reaction from the "oh yes it is/oh no it isn't" art critics.

Verse 3. Chris Ofilli does paintings which should endear him to people a little more. What puzzles them are the lumps of elephant dung that he tends to incorporate. At least that's the sole thing that any reports ever mention about his work. Personally I rather like it. But then, I've taken the trouble to form an opinion by looking at it not by reading the newspapers.

Verse 4. Damien Hurst does all sorts of stuff but mention his name and the only reaction you're likely to get is "He's the bloke who cuts up dead animals, isn't he?" Indeed he is but that's hardly a description of all of his work. Nevertheless there are a fair number of his pieces that do involve animals cut up, pickled and reassembled.

Verse 5. Mark Wallinger is another artist with lots of unusual concepts. The one that attracted the most attention on the news was the one where he put on all the lights in an art gallery, dressed up as a bear and spent the night walking round and looking out of the windows. Even I'm not sure what the hell that was all about.

Verse 6. When he was interviewed after winning the Turner Prize, Martin Creed seemed rather bemused (not to mention amused) by it all. Not surprising. His winning piece was an empty gallery where the lights turned on and off at random intervals. Make of it what you will.