Minimal

Like a moth to a flame

I’m beginning to think I should stay away from modern art galleries. Too often, I come away thinking “What a load of horseshit”.

This time it was The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh. I’ll admit to being deeply impressed by the level of detail and accuracy of reproduction in the Boyle family’s work, but their ideas of its symbolism just leave me cold. Their entire work comes from little more than chucking darts into a map and then recreating a patch of ground from that location in resin and other media. Just like the Meccano bridges exhibited at the Baltic last year, the reproduction ends up being just that — a perfect reproduction and nothing more. Where’s the art in that? Where’s the artist’s interpretation, adding value and offering insight? There’s none. It’s just another f•••ing piece of wasteland, copied clod for clod and hung on a wall. It doesn’t even convey any sense of mood, for crying out loud. Don’t get me wrong — it’s an impressive facsimile (and one I was in awe of), but that’s all it is.

Okay, so maybe I have issues with modern art, but... isn’t this what any traditional artist is doing too? Aren’t they also reproducing things they see before them? Where’s the art in that? Oh god, here we go again. This is where I start to despair. What’s the point of art? Photography too, for that matter. I really shouldn’t go to art galleries.

I think, at the end of the day, I just don’t know what I’m looking for in art. At least, not until I see it. Maybe I’m impressed by sheer scale (Angel of the North). Maybe I’m impressed by a moment being perfectly captured, along with its moods, thoughts, feelings and images (as in good photos). Maybe I’m even impressed by the occasional bit of symbolism. I don’t know what it is, but I’m hoping I’ll know when I see it.