Silbury Hill 180
Image by Chance
Silbury Hill

Silbury Hill

moss wrote:
Okay you don't like modern art, but what about Wallinger's giant white horse that is to be the Kent southern equivalent of the northern 'Angel'... middle England has struck again, and with disregard for history a great ******** replica of a Barbie like animal will hit you in the eye, why do they let children play with the landscape ;)
No, I'm with SL, I know there is some great modern art, it's just the stuff that gets under the door that irks me. And yes, I know it's a mistake to say the good stuff is the stuff I like but some of it, well....

Great expression about the barbie horse, "why do they let children play with the landscape." They shouldn't. It matters. Uffington great. This, pure vandalism - http://www.wiltshirewhitehorses.org.uk/kilburn_nelson.html
Maybe anything in the landscape should go to a popular vote as it's the public's landscape. And I would trust the aesthetic sensibilities of the great unwashed rather more than whoever approved the Barbie one.

I can remember on train journeys as a child that occasionally you'd see something like two men carrying a ladder, in a field, and it would be an advert for a decorating business. So there is a British tradition (sorry). Now it's buses and dead vans beside roads promoting transport caffs. And if it went to the popular vote Wallinger's horse would probably be carried, by a small margin, with the majority not bothering to show up. 15% for, 13% against, 72% no vote.

The founder of Conceptual Art is Marcel Duchamp, who was extremely intelligent. He was a mediocre painter but became notorious for his disdainful position towards the art orthodoxy. Although he was celebrated as being revolutionary if you examine his stuff you're left with the impression that he was pulling everyone's leg. For years he made a living mainly from playing chess - which must be no mean feat. Now he's a saint!