Pretentious conceptuals

In the course of visiting the Lowry exhibition on or about the 31st July, we also took in a display of what appeared to be fetishes and such like, perhaps from islands in the Pacific Ocean or perhaps from darkest Africa. All very artily displayed, each on its own plinth in a darkened room. We wandered around making hard core comments about all the fascinating material until, after a bit, BH smelt a rat. All the confections which we had thought were genuine native artefacts were built on a McDonald's theme; big macs, chips, coke and so on. Had McDonald's penetrated the Pacific Islands so long ago and to the point where the natives had incorporated them into their fetishes? Cargo cults? Further hard core comments. But we did not find any explanatory labels to help us, so left and thought no more about it.

Until yesterday, when I thought to take a peek at the Tate web site to find that the whole thing is an elaborate spoof. A deliberately confrontational bit of conceptual art. They may have taken the spoof as far as the original exhibition in 2002 being dressed up in anthropological clothes in which case I dare say the organisers had some fun at the expense of the media and the chattering classes - but I find the continuing joke rather offensive and a poor use of prime gallery space in central London.

There is nothing very profound about tricking people into thinking that buns built into artefacts are the real thing. And I do not need to be shown how ‘ethnographic art was both reconciled and fused with Modernism, creating timeless forms and enabling Global culture to harmonise in a single poetic language’. Why should they think that we are going to pay them good money for such nonsense? Notwithstanding, they clearly do and someone is stumping up the dosh, but I wish we didn't: it gives art a bad name. And I don't suppose that the natives are that pleased to be the unwitting butts of a bunch of rich westerners.

But read about it for yourself at http://whitecube.com/. Pick a time when you are not in a hurry as the site is rather slow. Or, at least, it is this morning.