Fiona Banner: Arsewoman in Wonderland
2002
Fiona Banner made her name in the 90s with “wordscapes”: literal descriptions of onscreen art forms, such as the film Point Break. In 2002, the Scouse YBA described the action of a porn film on a 6 x 4m billboard. Britain’s biggest porn star, Ben Dover, was called in to comment on whether the artwork itself was porn, and Prince Charles lamented a deterioration in the prize’s standards.
The then culture minister Kim Howells pinned up the following statement on the gallery’s comments board:
“If this is the best British artists can produce then British art is lost. It is cold mechanical, conceptual bull—-. Kim Howells. P.S. The attempts at conceptualisation are particularly pathetic and symptomatic of a lack of conviction.”
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Source:
Graham Barclay
