Bomb Hoax at the ROM

[adma]

I think artists can get away from it if they are lefty /socially progressive/ show a hate on for the Untied States. Otherwise, as the Germans woudl say, it's verboten. Using the German world is good as many Canadian artists have a huge hate on for the States- resulting in hate based Canadian nationalism- a very dangerous thing.

Actually, the lamest 9/11 art is based on hate-ons for the United States. Or, for that matter, on art-schoolish "lookit me! I'm daring".

The best of it is cathartic, abject reflection on society and on self--no different from the best "Holocaust art".

I still contend 9/11 was the most important aesthetic experience of our time--but that's not quite the same as calling it some kind of artistic masterwork...

 

[ganjavih]

While the kid came from a spoilt wealthy pretentious background...you gotta admit his "art" was brilliant! He achieved what many artists struggle to achieve in a lifetime: fame and brand recognition!

Nothing brilliant about it at all. I could take a shit at the doorstep of City Hall, make the evening news, and call it "art".

 

[Hydrogen]

Only if you lit it on fire and caught someone stomping on it on video. That'd make it art.

 

[unimaginative2]

Beez et all, perhaps this art would be more to your taste.

 

[smuncky]

While the kid came from a spoilt wealthy pretentious background...you gotta admit his "art" was brilliant! He achieved what many artists struggle to achieve in a lifetime: fame and brand recognition! Smart man I would hire him in a flash!

The reaction I've read so far on this board: Are all you guys PC or Right Wing? Where's the innocent fun in this town?

We must remember: This kid grew up in Finland, probably has that Northern European bias (aka WTC was an inside job--I agree with that myself btw) and the self-centred naivism that is central to an artist's character. (He'd make a good NDP candidate!)

I was an art student myself. I love to stir up timid small-minded Toronto.

A Beez--your POV epitomizes what I loathe about WASPY-old Toronto Corporate values: the majority of artists are just trying to earn a living! Just like you and your boring 9-5 corporate job....

Of course this was a childish publicity stunt--and he probably meant no harm. He's a kid--at 24 I was behaving rather childishly myself--I still am

World Trade Centre Vid was hilarious--making fun of the propaganda that is the American media and gov't!

i wouldn't call it innocent fun. this "art" looked like a bomb. if he has been living here past 9/11 he would know that shit that like doesn't get tolerated. and by writing a note "this is not a bomb" is not the solution. he knew this would happen and meant it to happen. and to top it all off, there was a fundraising gala going on that night so he knew that it would be reported. i call bullshit on his "i didn't know" or "i didn't mean for this to be a big deal". i hope he gets put in jail or something and has to pay off the amount that the fundraiser was going to get.

 

[Hydrogen]

i wouldn't call it innocent fun. this "art" looked like a bomb. if he has been living here past 9/11 he would know that shit that like doesn't get tolerated. and by writing a note "this is not a bomb" is not the solution. he knew this would happen and meant it to happen. and to top it all off, there was a fundraising gala going on that night so he knew that it would be reported. i call bullshit on his "i didn't know" or "i didn't mean for this to be a big deal". i hope he gets put in jail or something and has to pay off the amount that the fundraiser was going to get.

The guy didn't know, didn't care, and would not have cared less had he known. He's an idiot hiding behind art, but in the end, probably mostly harmless. And his fifteen minutes are about up.

 

[Blixtein]

Nothing brilliant about it at all. I could take a shit at the doorstep of City Hall, make the evening news, and call it "art".

One could also blow something out of your ass and call it fart.

This guy should be locked up for at least 10 years for planting a fake bomb in a museum. I have an idea though.. I wonder how he'd react if someone were to put a fake gun to his head and tape it in the name of art? Why is this pathology publicly funded?

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

One could also blow something out of your ass and call it fart.

This guy should be locked up for at least 10 years for planting a fake bomb in a museum. I have an idea though.. I wonder how he'd react if someone were to put a fake gun to his head and tape it in the name of art? Why is this pathology publicly funded?

while in his jail cell, his fellow cell mate walks toward him, pulling out his penis proclaiming "this is not a joke".

 

[Observer Walt]

An opportunity for a recontextualized "interpretive dance", Supremo?

Agreed that his fifteen minutes of fame are about up, but I hope we will hear of some meaningful penalty, in due course. A meaningful time out from OCAD would also be appropriate, to allow him to rethink the theoretical side of art.

Meanwhile the good news is that the gala and silent auction are apparently being rescheduled, and it appears that the anticipated funds will be raised after all, although belatedly.

 

[adma]

Nothing brilliant about it at all. I could take a shit at the doorstep of City Hall, make the evening news, and call it "art".

As in, "Eggleton"? Then in the 1980s, that might have counted as a political statement of some sort...

 

[BuildTO]

Stupid people didn't think this would cause a stir? Especially with our troops in Afghanistan.

What does that have to do with anything?

The political assumptions and pop-psychologizing in this thread are a bit much. This guy is obviously an idiot, and I agree that he should be fined according to the fundraiser's losses. Other than that, I for one am unwilling to make presumptions about the quality of OCAD's curriculum at this point.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

Just fined? An art installation is in order, featuring him installed in a prison cell for a while. Make him wear a sandwich board saying "I am not in prison."

 

[adma]

http://www.nonstick.com/sounds/bugs_bunny/ltbb_309.wav

 

[rather_draconian]

The artist mentioned that this was meant to demonstration "recontextualization", something about how the setting in which an object is placed in changes in meaning.

I'm sorry, but is that something that you really have to demonstrate? I'm pretty sure that people would freak out anywhere you put something that looks like a bomb, short of the underbelly of an CF-18.

I'm all for modern art but if the guy does something like this, he just needs to face up to the consequences because his artwork exists within society, and not some vacuum. Was he really "shocked" at the outcome?

 

[adma]

Never mind the mere fact of the fake bomb, did he have any clue about the AIDS fundraiser? Remember how that added detail elevated the gaucheness of the stunt--after all, a true conceptualist master would have done some homework to schedule around such an event...