Modern art is rubbish

Home Paddock has alerted the world to Waikato’s shame – no, not dirty dairying (now that the Crafars are selling up) but the winner of the Waikato National Contemporary Art Award:

Berlin-based Dane Mitchell picked up $15,000 for his entry, Collateral, which consisted of the binned wrapping from other award entries tipped on to the floor of the Waikato Museum, in line with his written instructions submitted to gallery staff.

He had not seen his entry when it won.

Some of the other entrants are not impressed, among them Mark Hayes, who built a sculpture for the award, entitled Domestic Violence is Not Okay.

“If I had known that the contents of my rubbish bin would make the winning sculpture I would not have spent 26 hours cutting, welding and grinding,” he said.

“Contemporary art needs to say something to you and make you think. I am sorry but I just cannot see the ‘clever’ and ‘cheeky’ in the winning sculpture. Is someone trying to make [sponsor] Trust Waikato look like a joke?

But what says the most about the state of contemporary art is this comment from Waikato Museum director Kate Vusoniwailala defending the decision of the judge, Charlotte Huddleston:

It had achieved an objective of getting a lot of people talking about the awards, she said.

“There will always be people who love things and those who hate them. The bottom line is we always ensure the judge we select has an excellent reputation.”