Today we spotted this installation on the Earl Grey Tower while walking on
Stanton Moor.
On the eastern edge of the moor is the Reform or Earl Grey Tower, built by William Pole Thornhill and dedicated to the Reform Act 1832.
Not surprisingly this serendipitous artistic encounter immediately suggested itself as a possible
entry for the Turner Prize. Naive and uncouth it may be, but the Turner Prize
has been described as bourgeois posturing, hopelessly routine and less challenging than
Monty Python.
An obvious name for the installation also suggests itself and
that too is a tribute to its raw power, a power the Turner sadly lacks.
Is This A Banksy?
It isn't of course, otherwise the tower would have been nicked, but what a name and what a question. One we can barely begin to
answer without peeling off the skin of our artistic integrity, submitting to
the raw epidermal pain of unexamined existential assumptions. Too many questions, crowding
questions, fleeting questions, flitting like ghostly bats with too many roosts. A cornucopia of
questions and that alone should give Turner aficionados pause for thought.
A cliché? But of course. That is the essence, the very soul
of the thing.
3 comments:
It actually is quite a thought provoking image, but perhaps not in the way the artist intended. I can understand someone with rare artistic talent - someone who can actually make a realistic and recognisable image - lugging the paint can up there one night. I can also understand, just about, the standard "cock 'n' balls" motif, intended to shock the more prudish rambler. But that falls almost exactly in the middle, and one could think long and hard about the mentality of the artist, and get nowhere.
It could be an Andy Warhol, perhaps "Honey I'm Home", and worth a few millions.
Sam - "one could think long and hard about the mentality of the artist, and get nowhere" good point. It is rather odd.
Demetrius - in which case it would be worth more than the tower I suppose. Not easy to steal though, not up there.
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