Terrific article by Mark Morris on some bits and bobs of contemporary art. He nails the easy / hard / hard / easy issue which seems to lie somewhere near the bottom of many ill-informed critiques of art now, including a glorious swipe at anyone who thinks that art is difficult (and by implication elitist): ‘I hate any form of entertainment that requires me to make an effort (I’d say I’d run a mile from it, but I’m not about to do any running), and I dig contemporary art’
As far as the Olafur Eliasson goes, ‘hippy festival’ is perhaps a touch harsh! I liked how much fun people seemed to be having, looking at their own reflections, and the inventive ones were making these Busby Berkeley patterns.
The other thing which strikes me about what’s on in the Tate’s Turbine Hall is that the way the various artists commission to fill it have dealt with the challenge of the space. Louise Bourgeois’s piders and mirrors, though huge, were dwarfed. Juan Munez’s greyed-out illusory working space used less than half of the hall, and split that up. Anish Kapoor made something huge and red. Eliasson turned the problem around by filling the space with nothing but mist and mirroring the ceiling to double the space. Smart.