What Is Art?

August 31, 2009 at 5:23 pm

Everyone has a different view on what constitutes “art”. That’s a bit of luck, as the alternative would be a world entirely decorated in Athena student digs posters of the tennis player scratching her backside, or a planet engulfed in Prince of Wales style watercolours.

The one thing uniting us all is that we all believe that we know what isn’t art. You know, unmade beds, lightbulbs going on and off, pickled sharks and basically all of the crap which is put in The Tate Modern. TheEye does not believe that faking your own suicide is art.

“Art student Anna Odell has been fined by Stockholm District Court after acting out a faked suicide attempt as part of an art project. says Swedish newspaper TheLocal

Odell was found guilty of violent resistance and fraudulent practice and was ordered to pay a fine of 25,000 kronor ($3,500).

Odell had denied the charges of false alarm, violent resistance and fraudulent practice, date back to January 21st 2009 when she was detained by police on Stockholm’s Liljeholmen bridge following what at first appeared to be an attempt to commit suicide. She was then taken to the psychiatric ward at St. Göran’s Hospital for treatment, only to reveal the following day that the whole episode had been faked as a part of her final art exam at University College of Arts, Crafts and Design (Konstfack).

Odell, who has a history of mental illness, explained that she was highlighting deficiencies in Sweden’s psychiatric care which she has argued to be “the most dictatorial part of society we have” where “patients are sometimes not believed”.

While her actions have drawn criticism from police and medical staff, the opening of the exhibition of her work at the college in May generated a great deal of interest in the art world and wider media.”

Only fined? And so little? She’s either a certified howling-at-the-moon fruitcake or a publicity seeking danger to herself and others. Either way it’s a throw-away-key job until a doctor signs her off as being safe to be on the streets. 

Not safe for herself, please understand, but safe for any innocent person who might come into contact with her during her next stunt. If you see her on a ledge, offer to give her a push and see if she means it. A student of irony would then push her anyway and claim at trial that it was an extended art project.