A younger me would relate this event as an occasion to artistically criticise China

13 min readJun 22, 2021

I participated in an underground art festival in Central London, called ‘Four Legs Good Two Legs Bad’. The title was inspired by Orwell’s ‘The farm’; A novel that allegorically reflects to the rise of the Soviet Revolution and the Stalinist Era. During the festival, artists presented their work in order to celebrate the Chinese New Year, year of ‘the Pig’. A younger me would relate this event as an occasion to artistically criticise China, but we of ‘The West’, live in our own anxieties. People are divided into opposing ideologies, beliefs and opinions that we are unwilling to communicate and overcome. For some, the dialectical method has been replaced by a social ‘Kayfabe’, the convention of accepting scripted false rhetoric as genuine or authentic. In other words, we live in the age of Post-truth, where Trump, Brexit and the rise of Fascism are influencing western artists to one way or another. The art festival was another ‘conceptual parade’, representing the British reality. Most artworks were about ‘pigs’. Artists used the animal, as a reference to make a statement about a social concern or demonstrate their skills; a display of themes about animal abuse, Brexit or simply the apotheosis of the aesthetical usage of the pig.

However, what motivated me to write this article was the presence of a group of friends, who joined me in the exhibition. My friends, unaccustomed to contemporary art, had questions: ‘what is the purpose of this?’, ‘what does the artist want to talk about?’, ‘why is he making such a horrible noise?’, ‘why she is talking to a dildo?’. Their approach towards the show was mainly sar

https://www.reddit.com/r/scotlandcroatialivest

https://www.reddit.com/r/croatiavscotlandlive

https://www.reddit.com/r/scotlandvcroatialive

https://www.reddit.com/r/scotlandvscroatia

https://www.reddit.com/r/czvsenglandlivest

https://www.reddit.com/r/englandvczlivenow

https://www.reddit.com/r/englandvsczlivetv

https://www.reddit.com/r/englandvsczLive

https://www.reddit.com/r/clippersvsunslive/

https://www.reddit.com/r/clippersvsunsnow/

https://www.reddit.com/r/sunsvsclippersLivest/

https://www.reddit.com/r/sunsvclippersLivst/

https://www.reddit.com/r/clippersvsunsLivest/

https://www.reddit.com/r/clippersvsunsLivst/

https://www.reddit.com/r/sunsvclippersnow/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nbaplayoffs2021/

https://www.reddit.com/r/sunsvclipperslivest/

There have been arguments that most of contemporary arts are indifferent or ‘trash’. In the Oxford dictionary, art is ‘the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power’. Unaccustomed audiences are baffled of how ‘this art’ is still relevant when art has been reduced from the beautiful to ugly, from the emotional to dull, to clumsiness and to ‘my 13 year old nephew could do that’. Celebrated artists like Jeff Koons and Damian Hirst are employing people to create their art, disconnecting creativity, skill and imagination with the notion of direct creation. Artists like Sir Anthony Caro, have said that contemporary art is about “stupid outrageous values” and not about the actual work. Michael J. Lewis’s essay titled “How Art Became Irrelevant: A chronological survey of the demise of art,” claims that “the present Western response to art, visual and otherwise is indifference.” Important art collectors like David Nahmad disputed that contemporary art is ‘a fraud’; he would never recommend purchasing contemporary art. In truth, there are flaws with those arguments, but also supporting suggestion, which enable my friends to sense a sensible apathy for contemporary art. It has become clear then, that this ‘contemporary art’ has transformed to what I call Pseudo-art, a deduced version of what art once was.

However, artists do respond and are influenced mainly from their surroundings. Therefore the choice of some London artists to embrace this deduction of art could be characterised as a critic against their audiences, which have already embrace the normalisation of the ‘deduction’ on politics. They could also describe the mood in Brexit Britain: we don’t discuss what is ‘good’ anymore. What benefits everyone? How can we live good lives? Politics are aligned with an unending discourse relating to the acquisition of power; there is a belief that we should maximise self-interests at the expense of others, to take control and power even if the price is ruin.

There is this loud claim that Europe, the United States and other parts of the world experience a new socio-political degeneration. Because of Brexit, Trump and the general rise of populism, things are getting worse to a degree that fascism, extremism and beliefs against facts have been praised. Politics have become toxic; the term ‘politics’ has incorporated theatrics and lost its true values. In a way it feels as a distant ‘romantic’ past, when ‘politics’ was a term related with the affirmation of ‘what is good’ and the ‘affairs of the city’. Politicians were tasked to solve problems for their people, make things easier. Nevertheless, today many politicians are interested in amassing power and projecting it. Similarly, artists try to amass as many Instagram followers as possible and project their artistic skills. In artistic exhibitions, like the one my friends attained, artists mainly try to surprise and seduce their audiences. By extremely challenging and sometimes even canceling artistic values such as beauty, creativity and imagination, artists point out in a way, the cultural state we socially find ourselves: a moment in our history where noble values are canceled, altered or ignored. Consequently, the audience that responds negatively or is baffled when it encounters deductions on artistic ideals, is an audience that sharpens its vigorous reactions, its critical judgments to the use of ideals. Thus, by making “pseudo-art”, the artist employs the educational aspects of art, to service his viewers into a deeper level.

Nevertheless, this is just one of the many views attempting to signify what happens today with contemporary art in an artistic exhibition in London. If someone was to perceive the ‘broader picture’, he or she should acknowledge and engage with the present discourse between artists, public and institutions about what art means today: the art versus Art and the development of the philosophy on beauty.

Dimitrios Oikonomou

A younger me would relate this event as an occasion to artistically criticise China

Written by Jsofie