No Idol Threats

‘TRACEY Emin, Damien Hirst and other enfants terribles of the British art world must be pea green with envy.

‘Down with generic tin foil statues!’

The Mail’s pictures of the 25ft effigy of George Bush, erected then dramatically pulled down in Trafalgar Square yesterday, was a step above an unmade bed and a bisected cow.

If nothing else is achieved by the forces behind this artistic work, it has at least upped the stakes in next year’s Turner Prize.

But while we admire the theme, the artistic merit belies a lack of the applied skills of traditional art.

We know it was an effigy of George Bush, designed in the mould of the one of Saddam Hussein famously toppled in Iraq recently, because we are told it is.

This work without a title might not adopt the empty plinth on Trafalgar Square, but it does occupy the minds of the Sun.

There, readers get to hear some words from those who came, built and toppled. One calls George Bush a ‘terrorist and a cowboy’.

But if you want to hear a really good rant, best ask a taxi driver, as the Sun does with Pete Collins.

‘It disgusts me we have to give blind support to this man [Bush] because other Americans helped us in two world wars,’ he says.

‘Does this mean that from now until the end of the world we support any madman like Bush simply because he is US President.’

Simple answer to that is yes, it does. But don’t worry, Pete and others like you, because with Osama bin Laden around and the proliferation of nuclear material the end of the world will be next Friday at 11pm.

So if you can just hang on ’til then…’

Posted: 21st, November 2003 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink