JanuARTY 2011

It is the first day after all My Silly Owner's New Year's celebrations and....here come the resolutions already!!!!!!! This year, My Silly Owner informs me, we are all to get more "arty". We all need to  experience more of the London art scene.  She tells me that and five minutes later takes off to cross the Millenium Bridge to ...go to THE TATE

I have to say, not my favourite gallery as it is a real "crowd pleaser" in its choices but......what are you gonna do? My Silly Owner tells me every man and his "cat" at the moment is going to the TATE to see the Gauguin.....before it's to late (Gauguin exhibition at the TATE  will end on the 16 Jan 2011). 

Upon her return My Silly Owner bores me to death with her tale of the  WEI WEI's Sunflower Seed's installation, also known in the cat world as "The Why Bother Stone Project". Get this: a whole village in China produced and hand-painted millions of clay stones to make them look like Sunflower seeds. Once that village was famous for producing the King's fine porcelain and ....next thing they knew they had to hand picked minuscule seeds and strike them 6-8 time with a minuscule brush to make them grey.

The stones were then flown to London in sacks and scattered on the pavement of a building South of the River, the Tate. ....and all for a cost which I am sure was NOT reasonable (even though art is priceless).

Now get this: you cannot even walk on them...or touch them!!!!!!!!  Well, My Silly Owner and friends could not as the installation was fenced off but I have heard of people who were able to do it.

Let's recap: a village famous for its legacy of producing fine porcelaine for the kings of China has ended up mass producing fake sunflower seeds by hand. It goes without saying that all of this was commissioned and produced "for the West"....the MADE IN CHINA of ART.

The I feel compelled to add something. On my balcony I have grey pebbles too but I choose not to make such a huge fuss about it:

 Sometimes I don't know why people bother!!!!!!!!