Gilbert And George

I visited the Gilbert and George exhibition on a date which right now I can't remember (It was April 28th). I have always liked their style of working, but as always, i find the couple far more interesting than i do the work, the contrast between the way they chose to be shown to the public in the different sinarios they find themselves in. It is not suprising to me why myself and my peers enjoy their work, however this does not appear to be the case for them. Quoting from the Metro newspaper, George comments;

'What's amazing is that our following is all young people, normally an artists emerges on to the art scene, gets a group of supporters who like that art, and they stay with you; but we keep getting young people responding to our work.'

What attracts the youth, in my mind, is the style, and the constant upgrading of media to create it. The exhibition displays their work through from their beginnings using pencil and paper, to the more familiar inkjet prints of the present day. This appreciation of changing technologies has ensure continuous new generations of interest.

Even though this is initially what attracts to the pair, as previously mentioned, it is their public conduct which I find the most intriguing. In their artistic appearance, they are confident, dramatic and eager to be seen; a stark contrast to their private lives which is to be keep just that - private. They seem to create a persona for themselves which is as much a part of the work as the visual prints. It seems they want to keep their artwork impersonal from their true selves, but yet it seems impossible in my opinion for an artist to ever disconnect themselves from their work to this degree, if even at all. An artist is always a part of their work, merely due to the fact that their ideas have been placed into it. However much they feel these are removed from the self, and the work is a seperate section of their life, the two must be connected as the life will always remain as a whole.


Imagine.........at a later date

On the evening of Tuesday 8th May, I caught the end of the BBC one programme Imagine, which was disscussing the Tate retrospective of the pair. In the section I saw, they where completing a virtual piece of work, which would be available to be downloaded from the BBC website for 48 hous. Even though I had not seen the programme in full or particularly knew the content of it, I still found myself downloading the piece straight away. As I have mentioned, I am not a huge fan of the work, so perhaps it was the lure of owning a limted piece of work that took my interest. I feel I would have probably acted in the same way with any artwork, reguardless of the artist, as I suppose owning something like this places me at a slightly higher status to those who don't.

It is now May the 14th, and I still have not printed out the work, or indeed have an inclination to. This leads me to believe that ownership in this case is far more important than the pleasure that the work would bring. All I care about is owning something connected with importance and fame that others do not. Yes, I admit it, I am that shallow.