Comments on: Art & Dubai

By: matthew collings

matthew collings — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 14:57:03 +0000

Vinegar Tom going on in baffling way about Brits problem. Certainly confusing message. Seems to think irony is synonym of blankness. Surely it’s clear even from the short quotes that the gist of my article is a critical comment about art and wealth? Isn’t invoking John Berger, big poshie, a snobbery (and therefore class) thing?

By: ross

ross — Mon, 07 May 2007 17:54:34 +0000

What is it about Martin Parr or rather what his photographs represent that touches our collective unconscious so deeply?

While working in India recently I was staying in Varanassi for the forth time in the last two years. While millions wax lyrical about this city that is older than time itself and photojournalists flock there to trade blows with the local gangs for the privilege of photographing burning corpses, I personally have found the day to day experience of the city falls far below my expectations such is the level of touts, tourism and hassle that one experiences there. The ubiquity of cameras being shoved in the face of every limbless Saddhu can make you, as a photographer, feel like the worst kind of leech.

And so it was that I was standing at the so called ‘burning ghats’ one evening at sundown, when three enormous row boats filled with Japanese Christian students pull up alongside the pyres of burning bodies. Perhaps a hundred and fifty teenagers in matching face masks and identical navy t-shirts snapping, recording and finally praying in unison as the rowers commenced rowing and the boats disappeared off down the ganges and the sun dropped. I stood and watched the proceedings and all I could think of was Mr. Martin Parr.

Two days later I saw two flies mating on a pile of sugary candy on the side of the street.

Enough said. India like everywhere else is calling Martin…

By: louis friend

louis friend — Sat, 05 May 2007 22:30:38 +0000

dear alec…

i would have left things on a more intelligent note.
keep up the good work. pamela lee is so ten years
ago. it is all postmodern.

By: Vinegar Tom

Vinegar Tom — Fri, 04 May 2007 09:43:27 +0000

I’m not surprised that British papers, commentators and artists figure prominently here. The British obsession with wealth (and where it came from), class (where you came from), and taste (what you spend your wealth on) is well known, but seems to be going global as a new global aristocracy (based on earnings from pop culture) establishes itself, and gradually imposes its tastes on the rest of us. You can sneer but you can’t hide… Irony is no defense against wealthy vulgarity in the 21st century, any more than snobbery was in the 20th. John Berger, where are you when we need you?

By: guybatey

guybatey — Fri, 04 May 2007 07:18:11 +0000

Dubai, it’s island world and the art fair seem to be crying out for a JG Ballard novel.

By: Don Guss

Don Guss — Fri, 04 May 2007 04:25:06 +0000

So very interesting. And sad at once.
I’d probably be more interested than sad if I was selling to “The Wealthiest People in the World”.
But that’s a modern problem I guess.

Last year the New Yorker did a wonderful story on Dubai and the new architecture in an Art and Architecture issue.
These island got a mention. Great reading and photography if you can find a copy.

By: aizan

aizan — Fri, 04 May 2007 03:51:18 +0000

i read frankfurt’s “on bullshit” several months ago. it defines bullshit entertainingly and well.