Anish Kapoor with "Tall Tree and the Eye" in the Royal Academy courtyard on Piccadilly.
Reading David Staples’ article today in the Edmonton Journal regarding his rectally-derived opinions on “Talus Dome”, the $600,000 bauble at the side of Quesnel Bridge, I was compelled to respond to his nonsense.
From: Ryan McCourt
Date: November 16, 2011 5:45:22 AM MST
To: dstaples@edmontonjournal.com
Subject: Are you the Journal’s new art critic?
I just read your article about the rabbit turds, and wondered why the Journal is publishing your entirely naive and unqualified opinions as if they amount to credible art criticism.
As someone with an advanced degree in the field, I am dismayed that my profession should be treated with such disrespect, that it should be commented on in the press by someone with no apparent qualifications, and the hubris to think that their inexperience doesn’t matter. Sports writers would have to know about the field they cover, so why aren’t the Journal’s art writers like yourself held to any standard likewise? Would someone as ignorant of hockey as you are about art be covering the Oilers? I think not.
I am very much in favour of art, and the public funding of art. I’ve studied and made abstract sculpture for years, and I can tell you that, from a professional artistic standpoint, this is an absurdly poor architectural piece, at an absurd expense. It is an embarrassment to our citizens, a symbol of the Edmonton Arts Council’s continued bungling of their portfolio, and an unforgivable waste of public funds.
You refer to the Talus Dome piece as “Edmonton’s most expensive, most exposed and best piece of public art”. These three points are stated not as opinion, but as if they are facts. But, while it may be the most expensive, how is it “the most exposed”, exactly? The most drive-bys at high speed?
And, most crucially, how do you judge it to be “the best”? Twice this is claimed, but not backed up with anything but your dubious assertion. I don’t believe for a minute you are even AWARE of all the sculptures in Edmonton, much less that you’ve assessed the merits of each, so your claim is patent nonsense, when Edmonton obviously has many better sculptures made by many better (read: actual) artists. Your chummy, credulous chat with the LA architects of the work, as reported, doesn’t do much to help your credibility.
Much of the widespread criticism of the piece consists of what a BAD SITE it is for the artwork, and how it does indeed appear to be PLOPPED DOWN (the architects themselves call it a PILE, for pete’s sake! EARTH TO STAPLES!!!) at the side of a busy road like construction materials (or x-mas ornaments, maybe), but your article attempts to counter this all by mere contradiction. No it doesn’t, you say. Well, um, sorry, but, yes, it does, and your wishing doesn’t just simply counter reality and magically make the art or the site work any better.
“Another issue is that drivers fear it might be too distracting because it’s so visually stunning.” Come on, Dave! Get serious… that’s not the reason, and you know it! Otherwise, drivers would be distracted by commercial message flower beds, and roadside memorials… because they are SO VISUALLY STUNNING!!! Or, they could just be visually un-stunning, but eyesores nonetheless… that’s the reality.
A Magnet for Natural Art Criticism
So, is this just more of the Journal’s usual browbeating boosterism, bullying people into going along with the next boondoggle? Because, honestly, it just comes off as bullshit, in the precise Frankfurtian sense of the word.
You are welcome to be thrilled by the work. Indeed, I wish I could be, but for myself, and others who have an education in the history and production of sculpture, it is a head-shaking, mind-boggling disappointment: a sad waste of money and opportunity, and another embarrassment for our city.
Foreign architects will continue to muscle real local studio artists out of public art commissions for many reasons (forgive me, but it’s not the purpose of this letter to educate you on these issues). The last thing we need is for generalist journalists to muscle the real art critics out of the media, too.
I look forward to the Journal giving equal space to informed, dissenting opinion on this issue, to correct your careless, ill-considered misinformation.
Sincerely,
Ryan McCourt, MFA
Common Sense is now accepting submissions of exhibition proposals from emerging, mid-career, and established artists.
Poets have said, with great justice, that the only reason to write a poem is that you can’t not write it. And many have also said that it is the non-commercial aspect of poetry that gives it its special integrity. It’s also probably one reason why there is so much jealousy among poets. As Henry Kissinger put it, the reason there’s so much squabbling in academia is that there is so little at stake. But I do think that poetry is only about itself, only about experiencing the world and making something out of that “lover’s quarrel” that is very personal—and paradoxically also universal. And there is the guild of poets who understand each other—they may not like the way the others do it, but they all have the same “angle of attention” to the universe. So there’s a sense of solidarity among them. And they probably love the fact that the world doesn’t pay them enough attention, that what they do is their secret in a way. They must choose that in some way.
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