So bad it Hurts
Forum > ReviewsWe are unsuitable for framing
Judy Darragh, Margaret Dawson and Hye Rim Lee at Te Papa21 Dec 2008 - 1 Jun 2009
by Flake 16 Jan 2009 1:23 pm
25 Comments
and not in a good way. This show is is so poor it sells out the title work, it missed the irony the humor and the life many of the included artist have worked hard to not be put in crap shows that chocolate box serious political critique. That this insults the viewer with sloppy scholarship and corporate values is at the heart of the Te Papa experience in general. Once I use to defend Te Papa as the greatest contemporary art work in NZ, as a conceptual manifestation, its corporate biculturalism manifesto is impressive and still is radical (as in dangerous). However i am now of the opinion, due to my own maturing on the subject, like someone recovering their personal pride after been cranally fucked out of existence post 9/11, that this kind of radical thesis should be debated in Universities (If they were able to behave as Universities and too, not shops), where results are published and debated not applied RAW on "consumers". What we are seeing is nothing less than the 'Shaping of the the future, (by we telling you your past) by a group that actually know exactly what they want the future to look like.. everything in Te Papa reeks of this destiny, like Destiny Church. Maori are our spiritual advisor's and brakes on any over the top corporate greed, but when it is Maori that is the party, fuck trying to block that flow or swim that river with out a paddle. So we have a little womans show, put Judy in a antiseptic glass box, put Alexis Hunter in a context stripped environment let Krugers Art work be hollowed out, mined for a quick buck in the cheep shot academy of Public spectacle Te Papa has mastered to render me a future where i don't have to care or think about any thing myself, cause all the answers i had were stupid and nothing, since Te Papa has spoken. (about nothing in particular, so well)
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Tasquin
16 Jan 2009 2:30 pm
2 articles &
150 comments since 3 Oct 2008
That's right, give Te Papa a good spanking- it always make me feel better when "Our Place" gets it, but sadly they just don't care.
hey idiot, fuck te Papa it's you I care about
How one book ignited a culture war, Andrew Anthony
The Observer, Sunday 11 January
It's 20 years since Iran's religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini pronounced a death sentence on Salman Rushdie for 'insulting' Islam with his novel The Satanic Verses. The repercussions were profound - and are still being felt. Andrew Anthony traces the course of the affair, from book-burnings and firebombings to the dramatic impact it had on freedom of expression in a multicultural society
The phrase "literary London" is usually employed to nebulous effect but it accurately describes the gathering that took place at the Greek Orthodox church in Bayswater on 14 February, a clear blue St Valentine's Day, in 1989. The occasion was Bruce Chatwin's memorial service, and it was attended by a large contingent of what was and remains an exceptional generation of British or British-based writers. Among them were Martin Amis, Paul Theroux and Salman Rushdie.
According to Theroux, Chatwin's funeral "was the high watermark of that decade's creative activity". For Amis, Chatwin, a recent convert to Greek Orthodoxy, had played a last joke on his friends by subjecting them to "a religion that no one he knew could understand or respond to". If so, it was a joke destined to be overshadowed by a very different kind of theological offering that was far more of a challenge to understand or respond to. That same morning Rushdie had been informed of the fatwa issued by the Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, calling for his execution for the crime of writing a novel, The Satanic Verses.
Word of the death sentence had spread among the mourners. Thinking the fatwa was little more than the empty threat of a faraway tyrant, Theroux called out to Rushdie: "Next week we'll be back here for you!" But Khomeini's pronouncements in such matters were seldom without consequence. As far back as 1947, when merely a cleric, he had ordered the death of an Iranian education minister who within days was shot dead. And thereafter countless other political and intellectual opponents were to lose their lives on Khomeini's command. Chatwin's memorial service was to be Rushdie's last public appearance for some time.
He spent the remainder of that day searching for his son, Zafar, then he went into hiding. The headline of the London evening paper read: EXECUTE RUSHDIE, ORDERS THE AYATOLLAH. "Salman had disappeared into the world of block caps," wrote Amis. "He had vanished into the front page." In fact he had moved with a Special Branch protection team to the Lygon Arms hotel in the Cotswolds. Apparently a tabloid reporter happened to be in the next room, conducting an adulterous affair, and missed the biggest story of the year. That same evening Channel 4 broadcast a pre-recorded interview with Rushdie on The Bandung File. "It's very simple in this country," said the author, when asked about the demands that his book be withdrawn from shops. "If you don't want to read a book, you don't have to read it. It's very hard to be offended by The Satanic Verses - it requires a long period of intense reading. It's a quarter of a million words."
Four days after Rushdie received his "unfunny Valentine", he issued an apology: "I profoundly regret the distress that publication has occasioned to sincere followers of Islam." At first the apology was rejected then accepted in Iran, before Khomeini stated that even if Rushdie repented and "became the most pious man of all time" it was still incumbent on every Muslim to "employ everything he has got" to kill him. So much for the spirit of forgiveness.
What the mixed responses pointed to was that, right from the start, The Satanic Verses affair was less a theological dispute than an opportunity to exert political leverage. The background to the controversy was the struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran to be the standard bearer of global Islam. The Saudis had spent a great deal of money exporting the fundamentalist or Salafi version of Sunni Islam, whi
The Observer, Sunday 11 January
It's 20 years since Iran's religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini pronounced a death sentence on Salman Rushdie for 'insulting' Islam with his novel The Satanic Verses. The repercussions were profound - and are still being felt. Andrew Anthony traces the course of the affair, from book-burnings and firebombings to the dramatic impact it had on freedom of expression in a multicultural society
The phrase "literary London" is usually employed to nebulous effect but it accurately describes the gathering that took place at the Greek Orthodox church in Bayswater on 14 February, a clear blue St Valentine's Day, in 1989. The occasion was Bruce Chatwin's memorial service, and it was attended by a large contingent of what was and remains an exceptional generation of British or British-based writers. Among them were Martin Amis, Paul Theroux and Salman Rushdie.
According to Theroux, Chatwin's funeral "was the high watermark of that decade's creative activity". For Amis, Chatwin, a recent convert to Greek Orthodoxy, had played a last joke on his friends by subjecting them to "a religion that no one he knew could understand or respond to". If so, it was a joke destined to be overshadowed by a very different kind of theological offering that was far more of a challenge to understand or respond to. That same morning Rushdie had been informed of the fatwa issued by the Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, calling for his execution for the crime of writing a novel, The Satanic Verses.
Word of the death sentence had spread among the mourners. Thinking the fatwa was little more than the empty threat of a faraway tyrant, Theroux called out to Rushdie: "Next week we'll be back here for you!" But Khomeini's pronouncements in such matters were seldom without consequence. As far back as 1947, when merely a cleric, he had ordered the death of an Iranian education minister who within days was shot dead. And thereafter countless other political and intellectual opponents were to lose their lives on Khomeini's command. Chatwin's memorial service was to be Rushdie's last public appearance for some time.
He spent the remainder of that day searching for his son, Zafar, then he went into hiding. The headline of the London evening paper read: EXECUTE RUSHDIE, ORDERS THE AYATOLLAH. "Salman had disappeared into the world of block caps," wrote Amis. "He had vanished into the front page." In fact he had moved with a Special Branch protection team to the Lygon Arms hotel in the Cotswolds. Apparently a tabloid reporter happened to be in the next room, conducting an adulterous affair, and missed the biggest story of the year. That same evening Channel 4 broadcast a pre-recorded interview with Rushdie on The Bandung File. "It's very simple in this country," said the author, when asked about the demands that his book be withdrawn from shops. "If you don't want to read a book, you don't have to read it. It's very hard to be offended by The Satanic Verses - it requires a long period of intense reading. It's a quarter of a million words."
Four days after Rushdie received his "unfunny Valentine", he issued an apology: "I profoundly regret the distress that publication has occasioned to sincere followers of Islam." At first the apology was rejected then accepted in Iran, before Khomeini stated that even if Rushdie repented and "became the most pious man of all time" it was still incumbent on every Muslim to "employ everything he has got" to kill him. So much for the spirit of forgiveness.
What the mixed responses pointed to was that, right from the start, The Satanic Verses affair was less a theological dispute than an opportunity to exert political leverage. The background to the controversy was the struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran to be the standard bearer of global Islam. The Saudis had spent a great deal of money exporting the fundamentalist or Salafi version of Sunni Islam, whi
Hye Rim Lee doesn't exactly make feminist work - more like an Uncle Tom without the culture aspirational qualities to qualify as kitsch.
Exactly is tough job.... but at a certain ebb of existence, I agree with you about the Lee work, but you've just nailed the premise of the show in a way that make the whole thing look sophisticated. If you've seen the show.. try leaving with that idea intact
Uh, I'm sorry Flake but I can't seem to understand most of what you posted. Could you put that in layman's terms please. If you want more people to look at, like, and buy art you should speak plainer. Sorry.
I reread your article Flake. I don't really see anything wrong with women making art. I think they can be just as good as men. Maybe better. I own some sculptures by a very good woman artist and they get lots of compliments.
how funny. I dont really see anything wrong with women making art either, so long as the chores still get done.
snort.
snort.
hey attaboy, How's Joe?
Tell me,
Tell me all about Joe wuld ya,
please
Oh please
Tell me
Tell me all about Joe wuld ya,
please
Oh please
Tell me
I may not be the sharpest pencil in the case but I can tell when I'm being made fun of. And I'm smart enough to know it's not nice. If artists are going to be unkind to people like myself they may risk turning off their supporters. So Flake how about an apology. Do you dislike fat people AND women?
You are the meanest of them all Joe, the one true norm, truth Light the American Way.
I don't need you Mr Plumber. I don't need your friends or any one you may know any one who thinks like You. You are like a wall a child can play tennis forever against.
You see we out number you..you are small a small wall. What are you thinking! I would never sell to you. Are you crazy?
We are waiting for you to roll over and die of your one true creation, your glorious backed up bowl motion , may your cast concrete bird bath slice off your balls in one fluid action packed afternoon.. (thank dog you'll probably never reproduce.. though science is catching up) .. write a book will ya so I can burn it...
I don't need you Mr Plumber. I don't need your friends or any one you may know any one who thinks like You. You are like a wall a child can play tennis forever against.
You see we out number you..you are small a small wall. What are you thinking! I would never sell to you. Are you crazy?
We are waiting for you to roll over and die of your one true creation, your glorious backed up bowl motion , may your cast concrete bird bath slice off your balls in one fluid action packed afternoon.. (thank dog you'll probably never reproduce.. though science is catching up) .. write a book will ya so I can burn it...
Its nice of you to give me permission to make art AttaboyFatboy. and its terrible that I just cant seem to be nice all the time. Im probably just not a nice girl and someone ought to learn me better.
being told off for not being nice is part of being an artist, especially if you are female. you cant make work without pissing someone off. (Well to be fair maybe you can, if you stick to painting flowers, in which case you would probably just bore them to death instead of pissing them off).
I would reply that Im an artist not a city councillor or advertising consultant, its not in the bloody job description to be nice to you, to give you affection, to be friendly or to validate your ideas even if they are wrong...that's your mothers job, and now also apparently Te Papa's job too.
Flake was supporting those women artists not attacking them, by being pissed off that Te Papa is trying to make their work 'nice' and easy to digest for easily confused and offended people. Institutional metamusil anyone?
being told off for not being nice is part of being an artist, especially if you are female. you cant make work without pissing someone off. (Well to be fair maybe you can, if you stick to painting flowers, in which case you would probably just bore them to death instead of pissing them off).
I would reply that Im an artist not a city councillor or advertising consultant, its not in the bloody job description to be nice to you, to give you affection, to be friendly or to validate your ideas even if they are wrong...that's your mothers job, and now also apparently Te Papa's job too.
Flake was supporting those women artists not attacking them, by being pissed off that Te Papa is trying to make their work 'nice' and easy to digest for easily confused and offended people. Institutional metamusil anyone?
Flake
You seem really angry. In general.
I bet you would sell me your work. I have never met an artists who wouldn't and I don't think you are the exception.
I don't know wht you have taken such a dislike to an art supporter.
You talk about my backed up bowell movement but what you are really talking about is the fact that I'm fat. Right?
I'm fat because I have an eating disorder which came from being raised in a series of abusive foster care homes. You see my Mum didn't want me just like you don't want me here. I'm not going to die just because you want me to. I'm going to live despite being beaten and kept in an unheated garage when I was 8 years old, despite being starved while the REAL brothers and sisters of the house were fed. Waht do you know about this kind of thing Falke?
I'm not going to reproduce because even before I got fat girls wouldn't have anything to do with me and were mean to me because I have a speech impediment.
I do enjoy my food why shouldn't I and my art that is why I buy a lot of both> I like both so I buy both. Even yours if I can find some for sale.
I went on line and saw your art Flake. Even though I don't understand what you are doing I would still buy it. Even though you are unkind to me I would still if I wanted buy your art.
alibi. I didn't tell you off and you didn't piss me off I just can't understand what good it does to be mean. Particularly artists should be nice so people will buy their art. I would buy your art too if I knew your real name. I found out Tao Wells real name by reading through art bash. If you tell me your name I will ook for your art and try to buy some. OK?
As I said before I own a lot of very good art by women. Is yours good?
Because of the way I was raised I don't have a lot of friends. When I bought art from artists I found out they would want to be friends with me. I thought when I came on here that artists here would want to be friends with me because I would buy their art but instead most BUT NOT ALL of the artists on here have been impatient, scolding and unkind.
Teach me what I don't know I'm willing to learn but please don't yell at me.
You seem really angry. In general.
I bet you would sell me your work. I have never met an artists who wouldn't and I don't think you are the exception.
I don't know wht you have taken such a dislike to an art supporter.
You talk about my backed up bowell movement but what you are really talking about is the fact that I'm fat. Right?
I'm fat because I have an eating disorder which came from being raised in a series of abusive foster care homes. You see my Mum didn't want me just like you don't want me here. I'm not going to die just because you want me to. I'm going to live despite being beaten and kept in an unheated garage when I was 8 years old, despite being starved while the REAL brothers and sisters of the house were fed. Waht do you know about this kind of thing Falke?
I'm not going to reproduce because even before I got fat girls wouldn't have anything to do with me and were mean to me because I have a speech impediment.
I do enjoy my food why shouldn't I and my art that is why I buy a lot of both> I like both so I buy both. Even yours if I can find some for sale.
I went on line and saw your art Flake. Even though I don't understand what you are doing I would still buy it. Even though you are unkind to me I would still if I wanted buy your art.
alibi. I didn't tell you off and you didn't piss me off I just can't understand what good it does to be mean. Particularly artists should be nice so people will buy their art. I would buy your art too if I knew your real name. I found out Tao Wells real name by reading through art bash. If you tell me your name I will ook for your art and try to buy some. OK?
As I said before I own a lot of very good art by women. Is yours good?
Because of the way I was raised I don't have a lot of friends. When I bought art from artists I found out they would want to be friends with me. I thought when I came on here that artists here would want to be friends with me because I would buy their art but instead most BUT NOT ALL of the artists on here have been impatient, scolding and unkind.
Teach me what I don't know I'm willing to learn but please don't yell at me.
Artists are impatient scolding and unkind because nobody likes them either....just their pictures...... Angsty bastards! oh, and bastardettes!, (though they're not as good at being obnoxious as they're female, (joke, people, JOKE), and if they were, Te Papa would kindly clean up their vitriol with a cool yet iconic and smarmily ironic yet culturally polite nz theme printed tea towel....
If you're not telling porkies about your life so far attaboy I'll send you some art for free!! Burn it or enjoy, but if you were treated like that and still have the capacity to think art's worth something, and not just want to punch people in the street (like Flake wants to in galleries ) then good on ya.
If you're not telling porkies about your life so far attaboy I'll send you some art for free!! Burn it or enjoy, but if you were treated like that and still have the capacity to think art's worth something, and not just want to punch people in the street (like Flake wants to in galleries ) then good on ya.
Cadmium Head
I still have the capacity as you say to think art is still worth something because of people like you.
Thank you for your patience and kindness. I hope some of it rubs off on Flake. I think he is probably a good bastard under his angry exterior don't you?
I still have the capacity as you say to think art is still worth something because of people like you.
Thank you for your patience and kindness. I hope some of it rubs off on Flake. I think he is probably a good bastard under his angry exterior don't you?
See this is the way it always was for me picked on by bullies. If you stand up to them they give up. See how Flake has now left me alone. It is always the same. We have to sytand up to bullies of all kinds and thank those who show us kindness. Have a good day.
I've simply drowned in your river of shit. tar baby.
Tar baby. Are you talking about the story where the fox makes a tar baby to trap a rabbit? I don't get it. Why not just say you are for being mean like a man and move on?
I would hope that if people like art they will buy it and if they dont they wont.
AttaboyFatboy I cant decide if you are serious or not. Artbash is a place of endless mischief and make-beleive (something I do usually enjoy) and people often play at being someone else for a while.
There is nothing wrong with business courtesy, a satisfied customer will repeat their business. being polite to a customer is part of being professional, lots of people do it every day.
But what you are talking about goes beyond business courtesy.
you just said: "I thought when I came on here that artists here would want to be friends with me because I would buy their art"
god forbid I would ever pretend to be someone's friend just so they would pay me, that's too similar to prostitution which is not a career choice Im particularly suited for. you do realise that artists really hate having their venal natures rubbed in their faces? If Im nice to you now you will think its only because you have started talking about throwing money around. Its an impossible situation.
but we'll both be spared that awful prospect, because the truth is Im actually so bad at being nice for money (dancing on my tail for fish snacks) that I keep quitting perfectly good jobs and being unnecessarily rude to rich people on principle. (no harm done, rich people never usually notice that Im ignoring them, for various obvious reasons). This inability to be charming for money is a serious character flaw that has kept me in penury so far.
of course there is always the perverse possibility that people who like being spanked or ignored will show up and offer me money which does give me some faint hope for comfort in my retirement years (dominatrix granny?! yikes now there's an image that goes well with cocoa).
even better if people were actually interested in the work and not my charms or lack thereof. and yes I do realise how naive that wish is.
AttaboyFatboy I cant decide if you are serious or not. Artbash is a place of endless mischief and make-beleive (something I do usually enjoy) and people often play at being someone else for a while.
There is nothing wrong with business courtesy, a satisfied customer will repeat their business. being polite to a customer is part of being professional, lots of people do it every day.
But what you are talking about goes beyond business courtesy.
you just said: "I thought when I came on here that artists here would want to be friends with me because I would buy their art"
god forbid I would ever pretend to be someone's friend just so they would pay me, that's too similar to prostitution which is not a career choice Im particularly suited for. you do realise that artists really hate having their venal natures rubbed in their faces? If Im nice to you now you will think its only because you have started talking about throwing money around. Its an impossible situation.
but we'll both be spared that awful prospect, because the truth is Im actually so bad at being nice for money (dancing on my tail for fish snacks) that I keep quitting perfectly good jobs and being unnecessarily rude to rich people on principle. (no harm done, rich people never usually notice that Im ignoring them, for various obvious reasons). This inability to be charming for money is a serious character flaw that has kept me in penury so far.
of course there is always the perverse possibility that people who like being spanked or ignored will show up and offer me money which does give me some faint hope for comfort in my retirement years (dominatrix granny?! yikes now there's an image that goes well with cocoa).
even better if people were actually interested in the work and not my charms or lack thereof. and yes I do realise how naive that wish is.
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