Date: 28/10/2008
Category: Community
The art of Tracey Emin is not the first place you would think to look for insight into the current financial crisis. However, her photographic self-portrait entitled ‘I’ve Got it All’ says something important. In the photograph the artist sits, having apparently given birth to a pile of bank notes and coins.
Art has no intrinsic value; it’s simply worth whatever one is prepared to pay for it. And buying art confers prestige. Money is also something that has no intrinsic value – it only gives us the possibility of buying things. Value is conferred on money; value is conferred on art through money. That is the ‘aura’ surrounding art in the modern world – particularly contemporary art. Contemporary art is the art world’s very own version of sub-prime mortgages. Beware!
David Stevens
Additional Information:
Author: David Stevens
David Stevens is Leader of the Corrymeela Community