Categories
Random

David Shrigley on the Tube…

After watching a particularly interesting episode of The Art Show, I now plan to go and visit the work of David Shrigley currently being displayed on the London Underground. Here’s a detail from one of the displayed works:

Picture of a deserted book

20 replies on “David Shrigley on the Tube…”

It was a good documentary, that – reminded me that his public work and sculpture is really very good stuff.
The drawings and books I can take or leave – Shrigley mentioned he decided to do them ‘as a job,’ something the programme failed to pick up on. I’d be interested to know whether he sees all his practice as one and the same thing, or if the cartoony drawings are meant to be viewed differently to the gallery and public work above and beyond the obvious difference in context.

Didn’t see the documentary, but I met him at a party in 1999. Actually, that’s a lie. His publisher was having a small party at the top of Waterstones on Piccadilly which I invited myself to as I was a big fan. I thought he was great bloke. Surprisingly normal and self-deprecating.

I found myself in Gloucester Road station the morning after the Webloggers party, and with my hangover beating me into a strangely pensive mood, I missed train after train because I was looking at the works on display there. I absolutely loved them. Cheeky, irreverent, and strangely wistful.

Yeah this was a cheeky little programme, it seems to be a good time to show his work on a more publicly viewed format. masses of illustraters seem to use his work as a excuse to do meaningless pictures of what they deem to be highly profound statments. At last it seemed to offer some accountablity and ideolology. Which is long over due in this secture.

david shrigley’s artwork..is just that..another piece of artwork. art is crap, and art like this is certainly NOT BLOODY WORTH THE TIME analyzing bout it. Come on man, this is crap, his art is crap, my god..ppl can analyze this as contemporary conceptual art..bla bla bla, his work is brilliant because of this and that bla bla. please, my god this kind of art is fuckin crap. Art= impressionism, expressionism that kinda stuff is art, not this fucking crap

“Comment: barrie j davies (January 21, 2004 08:22 PM) said:
this is for you out there jason, art is not crap! you are just so narrow minded you would not be able to apreciate it if shit fell on you from a great height!”
We’d all be able too apreciate it though. “Art is expressionism” Isn’t this work a form of expression.. Oh my, it suddenly became art.

well, he’s a good man, makes thoughtful images and so on, but come on – look in any designer’s/artist’s sketchbook and you’ll find similar stuff – thoughtful captions about life and everything around them – why aren’t their images on show too??

Art is just expressionism, impressionism eh? what an idiot. Im sorry but you’re missing out on some amazing things in this world if you believe that art boils down to a couple of movements. That stuff aint relevant anymore so get with it.

Shrigley takes the piss and that is what endears him to the public. I saw a few pieces by him at the Serpentine this week and laughed out loud, what an amazing quality in a human being-let alone an artist! Take it at face value-he wants you to laugh at yourself and the idiocy of life, what a great guy.

I came across the work of this man in a set of postcards titled Evil Thoughts. I thought it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. I think the guy is brilliant. His art is unique, not everyone’s cup ‘o’ tea, but it makes a point and it brings on an emotion (laughter). He communicates an idea with simplicity.

I’ve only just found this website doing research for a critical journal to support a foundation art course. Contempory art has been rubbished a lot recently, no thanks to john humphreys (art school,bb2 gives you some idea of the work I’m doing),but I think it has to be welcomed if not only because its a collection of people putting out ideas so interesting people dispute them on websites. As for Shrigley, I’ve never come across artwork like it (and yes it is art if the artists says so)at first I thought it was talentless and simple,a child could do it, but after a while it began to make me smile and think about why he created these pieces which I believe,in most cases, is what an idea is supposed to do.

David shrigley eats small children then forms a paste of his shit and ground up left over bones. This is then smeared onto his skin so that he can work on his art. didn’t you know? This is how he works away from his usual methods of working, which is mainly biblical highly skilled paintings of naked people that he does on cathedral ceilings and stuff. Personally I prefer his later works.

shrigley is g-d. whence i am feeling at my lowest i can look at one of his drawings and realize everything is gonna be all right cause there is no meaning cept to be good and walk on into the darkness. there is such love and caring in his work–he is so moral that we cannot help but to pay attention.

I agree with James Topple that Shrigley’s later work is better, but wanted to suggest he looks into the ‘Waste’ series from a few years ago, which steers away from the biblical stuff and towards expelling shit onto cathedral ceilings. A more appropriate comment for the current ethical climate perhaps

Das SCHIMMEL agrees with James Topple and Katy that the artists later work is better. This is not open to any more discussion.
Kind regards
Das SCHIMMEL

David Shrigley..? Brilliant, it is our job as artists to reflect what is going on in the world and to point out the foibles of our existence. Life isn’t a grim parade towards death, let’s have some fun everyone…!

Shrigley’s menacing attitude towards the relation of image and text liberates their combined function. The messages created are playful, ironic and witty; often bordering on non-sensical. I love Shrigley and his open mind. His lack of inhibition towards communicating something that may not be correct (in any sense), is what makes him unique and fascinating.

Comments are closed.