Tracey Emin Installs Neon Sign in Downing Street‎

Oh dear. It seems the UK Prime Minister David Cameron requested a Tracey Emin work to be installed at 10 Downing Street.  The piece, entitled More Passion has now, apparently, been put in to place so it can be adored by passing Ministers and civil servants.

The startlingly unoriginal piece (seen left) was chosen by the artist so that visiting heads of state could see something a little cutting edge from the British art world.  More Passion is valued at around the US$500K mark so could perhaps be described as mainstream art, rather than something at the so called cutting edge. Mind you, that's not a bad price for a two word neon sign.

Emin is a well known supporter of the Conservative Party. She told the BBC in May: "Remember, Tory people are massive collectors of the arts. For a lot of my friends, who think I'm crazy voting for the Tories - I want to know who buys their work? Who are the biggest philanthropists? I promise you, it's not Labour voters."

Strange how you can go off people. Well, Tracey - they are customers and although the customer may always be right, you don't have to vote for them.  Besides, which party is known for cutting arts funding for everyday people even if its members do buy the work of overrated handicrafters?  A little selfish, Tracey. Your lights may be on in Downing Street but shamefully not between your ears. Oh and last time I looked the definition of the word philanthropist was a person who seeks to promote the welfare of others, especially by the generous donation of money to good causes. Unless you count youself as the good cause we must be living on different planets.

Sigh. It could have been worse.  She might have chosen her unfinished bed piece from around a decade ago with which to decorate the corridor of No 10.

Thanks to regular Kuriositas contributor Ssoosay for his take on the whole affair.

The Masterpiece

This is an extraordinary piece of animation, for several reasons. Firstly it is extremely well put together and storyboarded - but that is perhaps what you would expect from a professional artist.

It is the story of a man who paints in his spare time.  Convinced he has created a masterpiece he gives up his work and attempts to convince the art world of the merits of his piece.

It is a story wonderfully and movingly told and one which avoids cliché (which to be frank I was looking out for) and avoids the prerequisite happy ending that many animators feel that they must have in order to make their work marketable.  In fact the ending is quite bleak (sorry if that is a spoiler).

Yet what makes this animation remarkable for me (as well as its pathos) is the interpolation of so many different artistic masterpieces within the narrative.  I have to say I watched this more than once because I guess I was following the story too closely but then certain poses and positions rang bells of familiarity.

So how many can you see?  I won't give any more than one away here but I will say that although some are obvious (the board of the local gallery for example which you can see above) you will have to be very sharp eyed to catch them all.  I must say that for animated short films I am usually put off by anything longer than four minutes (and this is twice the length) but I was pulled in to the story of this struggling artist from the get go.  After all, so many artists have not been properly recognised in their life time - Vincent van Gogh springs immediately to mind here (indeed, the animation made me think of him more than once).

Although the story is not a happy one I have to admit to having had a great deal of fun trying to spot all her allusions to masterpieces that have gone before.  Really awesome work.

Thanks to animator Maeve Clancy for this.  I am afraid that her vimeo page does not give anything in the way of detail but I did manage to locate her website.  Although there is nothing biographical that I can tell you from there either it does have a great deal of her own art work, in animation but also in pop up and paper, comics and illustrations. I particularly like her web comic Flatmates and am somewhat in awe to her talent if the truth be known.