PRUNING TREES 4

Me: ‘ Yes, I know what you mean Doc – I also get the feeling looking at photographs of the skull – or just thinking of it as an idea, that it’s a sort of terribly old fashioned idea – a studenty kind of thing, borrowed from the Aztecs, or the Mayan - or the Tibetans for that matter – not forgetting the ‘killing fields’ of skulls in the Cambodian Pol Pot regime of the 70’s - I’m sure it’s been done in reality and in art plenty of times – talking of old fashioned,do you remember Chapter Arts Centre recently gave over the gallery to an Artist who decided to show nothing, and that the gallery should simply be a white meeting place for ‘chats’… what can you doooo with these people? … no sense or idea of history at all…’
Dr Franklyn: Laughing ‘Oh yes, I remember that nonsense- and the C.V.A. debacle as well . Y’know; it’s a funny thing about Hirst’s statement about not caring what Art is. Who does? such an idea!- it’s never ever bothered Joe Public in the slightest, your ordinary person couldn’t give two hoots about what art is – come to that, most people wouldn’t give tuppence to hang ‘art’ on their walls - and the idea of going to a gallery for a chance ‘chat’is nonsense - and Wilde’s little Dictum, ‘Of course all art is perfectly useless’ fits Hirst like a glove, here’s a dictum of my own to fit his situation, and was the endplace of my original mulling - Rich Boys play with Rich Toys, and don’t forget, he famously said of his spot paintings, 'They're bright and they're zany, but there's f*** all there at the end of the day.’ he should have the self discovery of your friend who realised he had nothing to say – and get out of the kitchen.'
Me: Laughing ‘Hmm, lets not get on to the CVA – I’ll be steaming – but yes, that’s exactly it Doc. Rich boys do indeed play with rich toys. Platinum, Diamonds, Ivory, all stickily stuck together like some crazy over-indulgent Blue Peter thing, like Peter Carl Fabergé making his mad Easter eggs for the Tsars…talk about religious reliquaries, blimey! And of course the skull has that very shifty title ‘For the Love Of God’ I think it’s more a case of I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water …’