(originally published by The Student)
Art's capacity for sparking debate can be found everywhere, from the Uni's comfiest lecture theatres to the bar at the Hive. Whether it's the beauty of a painting, a poem or a person we're talking about, one thing's for sure- everyone has their own tastes, and very rarely are these in perfect agreement with those of the next thirsty clubber.
The Talbot Rice Gallery has taken one of David Hume's great thoughts on the nature of beauty- that it is in the eye of the Beholder- and given local galleries, artists and organisations the opportunity to nominate a work of art which, to them, is beautiful. The result is an exhibition as varied in taste as that crowd at the bar, from the purist oil-and-canvas lovers to the multimedia fettishists, via the big names of Yoko Ono and Canterbury Cathedral.
As well as more classical choices of oils or pencil on canvas, we see representations of other forms of art entirely. Andy Law and Mil Stricevic's computerised art takes images from the internet and spins them, pixel by pixel, in a projected piece called Spinning Bits. The source images, not entirely family-friendly, are broken into their constituent parts and presented as pure colour, light and motion; a technique which can derive beauty from pretty much anything.
The dialogue between pieces is clear- while one criticises the status quo, another sticks to it with dazzling effect. This is a community with brilliant self-awareness, as demonstrated by Narcissus, a piece which lies not on the walls, but on the floor of the gallery's first room. This piece displays as its contribution the Oscar Wilde poem of the same name on a mirror in the shape of a splash-mark. This piece, I feel, best exemplifies the gallery as a whole- it displays a beautiful work of art, this time a poem, in a beautiful way, and at the same time comments on beauty. As we peer into the poem's surface, we see ourselves peering back up, the beholder and the beheld.
The Talbot Rice Gallery has taken one of David Hume's great thoughts on the nature of beauty- that it is in the eye of the Beholder- and given local galleries, artists and organisations the opportunity to nominate a work of art which, to them, is beautiful. The result is an exhibition as varied in taste as that crowd at the bar, from the purist oil-and-canvas lovers to the multimedia fettishists, via the big names of Yoko Ono and Canterbury Cathedral.
As well as more classical choices of oils or pencil on canvas, we see representations of other forms of art entirely. Andy Law and Mil Stricevic's computerised art takes images from the internet and spins them, pixel by pixel, in a projected piece called Spinning Bits. The source images, not entirely family-friendly, are broken into their constituent parts and presented as pure colour, light and motion; a technique which can derive beauty from pretty much anything.
The dialogue between pieces is clear- while one criticises the status quo, another sticks to it with dazzling effect. This is a community with brilliant self-awareness, as demonstrated by Narcissus, a piece which lies not on the walls, but on the floor of the gallery's first room. This piece displays as its contribution the Oscar Wilde poem of the same name on a mirror in the shape of a splash-mark. This piece, I feel, best exemplifies the gallery as a whole- it displays a beautiful work of art, this time a poem, in a beautiful way, and at the same time comments on beauty. As we peer into the poem's surface, we see ourselves peering back up, the beholder and the beheld.
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