h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm certain the wallflowers were around here somewhere...

This exhibit invites us to discuss whether the notion of 'door' implies the action of opening into another space.

I'll bet that's *exactly* what it says in the 'artist's statement'.

I’m assuming the artist’s Irish, so I’m sure he’s not going to be as pretentious as that!

You mean the rot hasn't spread across the Atlantic? Good!

Oh, the pretence is alive and well in the UK, especially among the set of artists once known as the YBA (Young British Artists) - Tracey Emin, Damian Hirst, etc. They are regularly parodied in the satirical magazine Private Eye, in its 'Pseuds Corner' column.

I just searched for a random example, and found this in the Telegraph from 2001. Art student Katherine Hymers is explaining her latest installation (she sleeps in a single bed in the middle of the gallery):

"I am becoming my art, because I can't escape it. If I tried not to do it, I would crave it. It's a compulsion so I have to do it.

Even if it means I am doing nothing for my art, the nothing will be my art. And it will also be the guilt of doing nothing and the frustration because it doesn't feel valid."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1312686/Student-lazes-in-bed-for-her-art.html

I loved this quote from her teacher:

"Rather, this action brings to a close a cycle of activities which began in the autumn term when Katherine made the front page of the local press by going to sleep in a furniture store."