LUCY FEIBUSCH reviews her visit to MARTIN CREED’s exhibition WHAT’S THE POINT OF IT? at The Hayward Gallery in the Southbank Centre
On entering the Hayward Gallery, my friend turned to me and said ‘I’ve heard that if you have the right sense of humour, this will be so funny’. Apparently my sense of humour is great, because, Creed, you are hilarious.
If you fancy a good giggle or want to be intrigued or totally confused, then I would head over to the Hayward Gallery in the near future. Unless you’re a struggling artist, in which case you may not want to put yourself through the torture of seeing quite how much space Creed has been given for his display of toilet paper and felt tip pen drawings… drawings? Questionable.
For the rest of us, Creed is incredibly refreshing. Curious about the industry of modern art, Creed’s exhibition includes a brick wall, a fart sound, a piece of plain paper scrunched into a ball, some blutac and a room full of balloons – and much, much more.
He asks, quite simply, what is the point of what he is doing?
Don’t bother trying to answer it.
It’s not meant to be answered, I don’t think. But to be honest, who knows?
That’s the beauty of it.
How often has the phrase ‘I could do that!’ been overheard in an art gallery, while looking at a piece worth thousands of £££££? Too often. Ultimately, we – the viewers – probably couldn’t reproduce that work. And even if we could, we haven’t, and will probably never even try, or think about our possible career as a contemporary artist after stepping outside the gallery in question.
However, I have actually made my very own Creed – I stacked toilet paper roles neatly in the bathroom yesterday.
Regardless of this reproducibility I do not believe he demeans art or the meaning of it, but rather asks us to actually question WHY do we care, because, obviously, we do. Why else would we spend £11 to go and see some artistic looking broccoli?
Actually, it’s probably not because of the broccoli. Who doesn’t want to see a giant penis getting repeatedly excited – and then not so excited – over London?
Creed’s exhibition questions both art in its finite form, and art as something defined by those who view it as such. A wonderfully funny, introspective exhibition.
