26 February 2004

Openings and hangovers

Sometimes I get off pretty lightly, but other times I get hit with the hell two-day hangover. I've no idea why. Anyway, I'm just recovering from one of the latter. Bollocks.

I went to a Brendon Wilkinson opening at Peter McLeavey's on Tuesday. Have a few beers, look at some paintings, chat to some people. The usual thing. The Auckland guys were off to a pub afterwards, but we went back to Matt's for some cheapo beers (Parrot & Jigger Pale Ale - $8 a flagon) and arranged to hook up with them at Indigo later (it was $3 pint night). Matt's was good. We drank some beer, talked about art, and listened to some Butthole Surfers and this weird German compilation record. I got one of my Philip K. Dick books I'd lent him ages ago back again.

The discussion I remember mostly was about conceptual art and painting, and whether painting is conceptual. Matt's stuff (see the link in a previous post - I can't be bothered repeating it) can come across as really flippant - all to do with pop culture and conspiracy theories. But he's really serious about it. What he does with his band Cortina ties in with it as well. This isn't your usual kind of conceptual art - which of course tends to be cool and ironic.

I think there's a bit of a prejudice against painting in some circles. It's seen as conservative and old hat - as opposed to what the other Matt calls the 'pile shit up in a corner school of art' and video and multimedia art. Most painting today is conceptual though. It's about the idea, not producing beautiful objects.

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