Day 162, It's The Arts

Good evening and welcome to another edition of 'It's The Arts'.  And we kick off this evening with some cheap tat and some old rope.

Here's an important, but often forgotten, mid 90s piece by a little know artist from what was dubbed the 'Young Northern School'.

Titled, 'The rotten, hollowed out tree stump filled with water and decomposing dreams', and worked in wood, water, gouache and rats piss.  This piece was said to be symbolic of the lack of representation of Northerners in the Saatchi collection of overpriced art purchased for the purpose of investment and self publicity.

Like Tracey Emin's My Bed it failed to win the Turner Prize, unlike the bed it didn't even make it as a nominee.


The earlier work 'My Lake of Teeth', a two-part piece seen below, was also a failure.  Many critics failed to appreciate the work fully, mainly as they didn't travel oop north to immerse themselves in the full mixed-media experience.  Those critics that did travel beyond the Watford Gap and managed not to get a nosebleed weren't as receptive as they might have been. The artist should accept some responsibility for this perhaps - part of the full mixed-media immersion involved encouraging critics to view the work from the pictured canal by means of a kick to the backside when caught off-guard.  The artist still disputes this view and says that the work is "diminished by any experience other than that which risks Weil's disease".

The reason for the artist's obsession with Leptospirosis is unknown, however it has been noted that there is a desire to encourage various art critics to contract the disease as part of the process of appreciation.  The artist has a desire to see an equivalent level of dedication to criticism as there is to the process, indeed the artist has regularly drunk canal water to accelerate the creative process.


That's all from 'It's The Arts' this week, next week we interview a swollen gland on their work in the production of vibrantly coloured puss.