Are we a bunch of heathens?

I was looking at the 2011 entries for the Turner Art prize and thought to myself ‘This is one thing I wouldn’t miss if there was an event’. It is usually, and was again this year, a total load of rubbish put out for a prize. Like the Oscars where they want to award people for a crap arty farty film while the real undisputed best film made a mint so they ignore it. Usually, a film with loads of awards isn’t worth watching. Art, for arts sake, is pretty much the same. A jar of urine, some dead animals and a pile of bricks have all been classified as art and won prizes.

It does make me wonder though about what will happen to real art, things that the public sees as art and not just what airy fairy art critics see, in an event. I for one have no art or anything remotely arty in my stash. I suspect that the price of a Rembrandt is only how much it would be in firewood and I would envisage the same with historical items. The original constitution would barely light a fire while original Korans and Bibles would at least keep you warm for five minutes.

Should we actually consider saving items from art? Sadly, I don’t like Art unless it is a nice picture or a bronze statue or something. The rubbish they call modern art turns me right off and I don’t think I can afford a Turner or a Michelangelo to put away to save so the question is rather moot anyway. They will be found only in Art Galleries or private collections if at all. We could store prints though. What about historical items? Items like the Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights as well as fossils and relics from earlier times and civilisations. Again, we cannot afford them so there won’t be any stores outside museums or private collections. None of these items though are going to be high on any one of our lists though. None will feed us, none will keep us alive and none of them will help us till the soil. They will be relics from a forgotten time.

We will remember those times only on paper. I have in my book collection a couple of books on Art. Pictures from the old masters but a very small example of what there is in the Art world. I also have a few history books which refer to the periods I find interesting; The Egyptians, Aztecs, Pirates, Dinosaurs, The Crusades and WWII. Plus some general history books where everything has about a dozen lines to describe that period. Enough to remember and pass on but nowhere near the detail these things deserve. I may add some more books if I come across them in a charity shop or a cheap book shop but I’m not buying any at full price.

What about films? Gone will be the bulk of the films we have made. Only films that we actually have in our collections will be available. This is going to be Terminator and The Matrix and few of the classics like Citizen Kane and Blue Angel although will some of the classics being remastered and released such as Metropolis then we may have a few of the oldies. Again they are not going to feed us so will not be on any of our lists.

Now music would be different as they are in digital format and highly compressed they could easily be stored but I wouldn’t store everything. I would have my CD’s and although Handel, Bach and Mozart are in my collection for some reason Justin Beiber and others like him are not.

So little Art, no modern stuff, little history, a few films and a strangely mixed collection of music. I’ve no intention of adding anything more although I may end up with some films and more music. To the arty farty types that makes me uncultured and a heathen? How are you fairing?