Yesterday, Oxford. The city best described by changing the F for a T and the second O for a U. It smelled. And whilst the city itself honked rather unpleasantly of faeces, the shows we encountered within Modern Art Oxford, Manfred Pernice and the Bloors, had a nostalgic smell - fresh cut wood, our favourite, setting a high benchmark for our expectations.
The show was an odd one. Initially, we were confused, bored, flippant, apathetic. But these shows, in their combination of household junk, flung together on some sublime cubes as shown by Pernice, and shameless self promotion of the brothers Bloor, brazenly exhibiting a collection of posters for the show that we were already in, collectively, rung the kinds of bells we like to hear resonate. We like singing our own praise. We like stapling a bunch of what everyone would look upon as waste together. We like both of these things. And we definitely, definitely like both of these things within galleries. We like art when it is reflexive. And in the same way that we like it when we see wrestlers in films. Or rappers in films. Or both rappers and wrestlers in films, we liked this hotchpotch of shouldn't-work-but-it-does. Just like this winters sure to be blockbuster - Xzibit vs Stone Cold Steve Austin: A Space Odyssey*
(**)
So then, Modern Art Oxford. One question (if that kind of art is what you're gonna show) - When's our exhibition gonna be?!
*not an actual film.
**Illustration purposes only, neither the aforementioned rapper nor wrestler.
