The Age of Destruction
Since we museum-y types tend to be pretty gung-ho about preserving things (everything! for all time!) I thought this was an interesting discussion of vandalism of art and cultural heritage. Thoughts?
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There are some before & after pics here... http://www.bplphoto.co.uk/galleries/forward.html
In stark contrast, when the statue of the Bull, by the Birmingham Bullring, was vandalised by being scratched a couple of years ago, people were so upset they left flowers and poems by it!
Going back to the issue of destruction for the sake of art, I think part of the issue is that the aim for a lot of artists is to push limits. However, this is also the aim for people who want to violently rebel against society for other reasons. Given that both are intentional, and presumably carried out by people of sound mind, I do feel a bit as if artists shouldn't have any more right to destroy things than anyone else!
That said, I think it can also be very interesting to wreck things, and we do get very precious about "Stuff", don't we? So challenging a bit of that preciousness can probably be a good thing now and again...
As long as they don't destroy anything I like! ;)
However, I do have more truck with those who can give an explanation for what they did. How valid those explanations are is something that perhaps is totally subjective.
A closing thought - active destruction of public pieces gets more press than the slow degeneration of neglected items languishing in private collections and public museums, or the everyday careless destruction which we inflict on our personal possessions, which we often deem of little value. If we are worried about the loss of history, which is worse?
I've listened to the show now, which was really interesting. I'm looking forward to part two next week. The destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas always seems particularly sad. It does raise some interesting questions about collections, and also the value we often place on art over people.