BEYOND PRETENSION ?

So, this year`s £25,000 Turner Prize has been awarded to some Scottish bint playing recordings of a 16th century Scottish dirge in a scruffy looking room at Tate Modern.   This year`s effort is obviously up there in weirdness terms with past winners - Tracey Emin`s bed, Rachel Whiteread`s concrete house, etc - but it`s a weird competition anyway, as it is restricted to `modern art` and to `artists` only under the age of 50.   I`m surprised they haven`t been done for ageism.

It really is the most awful nonsense, beyond pretension, and I think what makes it even more so is the fact that it is taken oh so seriously by the  gang of pretender art critics who heap praise on such mediocrity.   How JMW Turner must be spinning in his grave.

But, I have been heartened by the discovery of the alternative Turner Prize - the Turnip Prize - which is held annually in the Somerset village of Wedmore.   This year`s Turnip Prize has gone to Doug Pitt who produced a plate depicting the Chilli `n` minors - a big chilli with some smaller ones - and as daft as it sounds, this winning entry and the whole concept of the alternative prize turns out to be more meaningful, more legitimate and much more enjoyable than anything that goes on in Tate Modern.  In the name of reason, common sense and the rejection of artistic pretension, have a look at:-
 http://www.thisisthewestcountry.co.uk/news/8723166.The_Turnip_Prize__The_results_are_in/

....and a history of the Turnips and a list of past entrants can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnip_Prize