Good news. The ladies only classes have stopped at my leisure centre.

The problem is now whether to:
a/ join the other arty threads and play along in the interests of art
b/ join the other arty threads and blow their cover
c/ carry on ignoring them in the hope that they will complete their assignments for this module and go away. I believe the next module is more challenging - pitching an idea for a post-modern-conceptual app that people can download to their phones.

Just spluttered into my post-modern bucket of tea.

I have as much idea of what you are talking about as I do when I read 'Franks' posts.

ginny have you ever been in an art gallery and seen a lovely stone bench and sat on it, only to realise that it is an exhibit? I remember doing that once in Chicago
Or looking at something in the Tate Modern and thinking "Tut tut, this gallery is a mess! They haven't even taken the rubbish bag out." Only to realise that the bin bag is made of solid plastic and is, again, an exhibit.

JessM you mean just like this thread?

A quick break while mummy takes DGD to the swings, means I have my iPad to myself for a few minutes!

JessM - you are taking Bums and Tums to a whole new level. Respect!

Re exhibits I clearly rememebr trying to pick my way round the back of obvious central heating work at the Tate (as it was before dividing into Britain and Modern) and being told off for walking on an exhibit again

My 2 daughters will not go to a women only class.
As nurses they say that they should encourage everyone to do some kind of exercise.
Their view is if bums and tums or any other traditional female activity encourages a man to exercise then so be it.
They have told me they have had a few men who have gone once or twice just to look at the women but they do not tend to stay.
They were a little surprised that a man stopped coming after about 6 weeks once as he was doing well but they later found he had got a new girl friend who did bums and tums at another centre and he continued there.

Frank

Rolling around now. Feel a tad guilty. Isn't conceptual art meant to be taken seriously? But full marks for trying to keep going with a straight face.
I looked at Walsall art gallery today, gave it a baleful stare, and thought i was not in the mood to tread that fine line between exhibit and bag of rubbish.
Had a merry moment in a U3A business meeting recently though when someone revealed the attendance at one of the dancing groups included a bunch of women who dance plus a chap who, while unable to walk, attends in his wheelchair because he likes watching. He does pay. That's the important point.

I have a vision of my next submission for the Courtauld. It is a deconstructed wheelchair with roughly moulded male buttock cheeks inserted in the wheel spokes. It consistently unravels peculiarities, it mines the personal in order to address and interrogate the ways in which the present is understood. It draws on the fictions of history and speculation on the future and amplifies the ethics of those who are invited to speak and - to listen.

JessM , have to say we nearly got thrown out of 'Tate Modern'. We found the fact that so much rubbish could be exhibited and cost so much, we ended up in fits of laughter. Personally I think a lot of the 'art' there is like a case of the Emperors new clothes. Still, what do I know?

ginny.....I think a lot of it is pretty trashy too. On a trip with an O.U. group we did find the Rothkos impressive but in other galleries there was work that was really quite shoddy, even plain nasty. Emperor's clothes spring to my mind too....can remember saying it and our little group started giggling. That being said I know some people have found some of the huge installations amazing and quite unmissable.

MiceElf have you not read this thread through? 'Roughly moulded male buttocks cheeks' indeed? According to OP his must be well toned, buns of steel!

JessM would you believe I lived in Walsall for about 15 years and never went to the art gallery

I should have gone to the Art Gallery in Walsall a few weeks ago with some friends one of them an ex Art Teacher at a Walsall school.

I could not go as I was taking an elderly relative to hospital.

Frank

that is brilliant micelf. I met someone doing one of these MAs when i was in NZ. She had to produce pages of that kind of thing in order to meet the course requirements.
ginny yes I agree. There is a damien hirst exhib in walsall that is a load of anatomical models, bought from an anatomical model suppliers and put in a glass case. Bet he did not even put them in the case himself. He did not even find them in a skip I surmise.
But hunterf aka frank is breaking new ground. Hirst! Emin! look to your laurels, the new wave of talent in deconstructed art is snapping at your heels.

Orca, the semiotics of the materials I have in mind - razor wire, papier mâché and polyfiller, might lead HunterF, should he choose to deconstruct them, to a review of the signifiers he has alluded to.

Galen the art gallery was a millenium project I think, so has only been there for 13 years. That whole end of the high street, nearest the hospital is transformed.
I am very taken with the new installation next door to it. You think at first it is a Premier Inn. There are rows of regular squares arranged in rows on the sides. Each square is outlined in a bright colour and the colours are graded from red through to yellow. It works for me.

ouch micelf . You are scarily good at this.

JessM

I have so far not contributed to this thread although I have followed it with great interest and amusement. It has now meandered beautifully.

Bez - you must be one of the few people who hadn't!

Hey that would be cool. If everyone contributed just a little post it would come to the maximum and die a natural death. Closure would be achieved.
So come on all you lurkers. What's your favourite / least favourite experience of "art" ?

All right, I'll add my post on Art: I know what I like!