Beth Ditto

As I write this, A2-sized free copies of The International Herald Tribune are being handed out on Marylebone Road, London, with Beth Ditto plastered across the front. She is standing nude in profile with pink fabric covering her below the stomach and her name in black writing from the newspaper typeface covering her nipples. Her hair is a flaming red and her eyes are surreanly closed, lavished in sultry eye make-up, her lips a deep red.

The curious thing is, if she were Kate Moss, she wouldn't be causing such a stir. It is because there is so much of her flesh that the image is more shocking and overtly sensual than if she were a size-zero catwalk model. The image is a mass of contradictions - mixing feminine with butch, covert with overt, sophistication with brash, conventional with unconventional and challenging notions of beauty. Could any other artist be capable of portraying so much in just one image? Beth Ditto rocks.

Gun At Damien Hirst's Head

Eugenio Merino is just the man I have been looking for. The Spanish artist has created a sculpture of the British artist, Damien Hirst, pointing a gun at his head. Not that I want Hirst to commit suicide, of course. (In my earlier days as a student at Oxford I wrote an article for The Owl Journal against the tawdry glorification of suicide in literature as a cynical stunt to pull: http://theowljournal.com/reader/?page=11&edition=7) But the point of his sculpture called "4 the Love of Go(I)d” is not death as an end in itself; it is about the worth of art. Merino’s point is that Hirst’s attempts to increase the value of his art could only be enhanced by his own death.

Yesterday, Merino was quoted in The Guardian:
"I thought that, given that he thinks so much about money, his next work could be that he shot himself. Like that the value of his work would increase dramatically," Merino told The Guardian. "Obviously, though, he would not be around to enjoy it. It is a joke but it is also paradoxical that if he did kill himself his work would be worth even more. That is a metaphor for the current state of the art world."

Parallels can also be drawn with the current state of celebrity. I predict that Jade Goody will become the muse of many a writer following her death (and I hope that she doesn’t die!). Do you remember when she was reviled? Now, because of the health tragedy that has befallen her, the media has become involved in a sort of expiation of the way in which it created the Goody phenomenon.

On 17 November 2008, I wrote a post in this blog saying that Hirst’s next work of art should be focused on its financial value: http://workofmyownfiction.blogspot.com/2008/11/price-of-art.html

I suggested that he place his next work of art in the middle of Leicester Square, next to all the portrait artists who sit out in the wind and rain every day, and tell everyone that the work is not for sale. This should be his response to Merino. Unless, of course, he can think of a better idea of his own.

No Kissing Signs At Warrington Station

I can’t resist posting a couple of serious clarifications which Colin Daniels, chief executive of Warrington’s Chamber of Commerce, could put under the “no kissing signs” he has championed at Cheshire’s Warrington Bank Quay train station in a bid to stop “congestion”. To check out the sign before reading my suggestions, visit:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/no-kissing-allowed-at-warrington-station-ndash-it-blocks-the-platform-1623806.html

No air kisses allowed - French only.

Trilbys obstruct kissing – ditch the rim.

No heterosexual kissing allowed. (If you take the figure with short hair for a woman)

No homosexual kissing allowed. (If you take the figure with short hair for a man)

Do as we do, not as the red ink says.

If you hadn’t thought of doing this, then do!

I adore this quote in The Independent today - Here is Mr Daniels, who first mooted the idea back in 1998 after hearing that a station in Deerfield, Illinois, had used the signs to ease congestion: “It is a bit of fun, but it will be interesting to see if people observe it. They seem frivolous, but there is a serious message underneath.”

Warning On Cannabis

At last - a television campaign aimed at warning teenagers of the mental health problems associated with cannabis.

The Guardian today reports that, while it is not the first anti-cannabis advert to appear on British television, it is the first to target 11 to 14-year-olds.

Like many, I used to think that cannabis was no real big deal, and was a drug on par with alcohol and cigarettes. I now know that it isn’t. Its ability to trigger long-term mental health problems is far greater than we thought 10 years ago. Or rather, more of us are now aware of the mental health risk.

According to figures quoted in the Guardian, 10,000 11 to 17-year-olds were treated for cannabis use in 2005, 10 times the number a decade ago.

I have watched the advert on the Guardian site. It is hard hitting. I have seen that kind of thing happen to people. A cannabis-user who experiences that level of paranoia doesn't have to have been using the drug for very long.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/video/2009/feb/13/advertising-drugsandalcohol

Well done to Frank, the Home Office-run drugs advice and information service promoting the ad. The campaign is well worth the £2.2 million the government spent on it.

First Past The Post in Israel

The first thing that needs to be understood about the Israeli elections is that the election took place under a first past the post system.

Therefore, Kadima's 28 seats is more than Likud's 27 and means that Kadima is the winner. Period.

If the right wing is stronger as a whole when you add Yisrael Beiteinu to the equation, tough. That is the way first past the post works.

I support Livni's decision to reject a coalition and I think that her alternative of a rotating premiership is a much more practical and sensible solution.

Isreali Elections

Early reports indicate that Tzipi Livni's centrist Kadima Party is narrowly ahead of Benjamin Netanyahu's right wing Likud Party.

I hope she wins.

Bank Bosses and Bonus Culture

The BBC has reported today that former banking bosses have apologised unreservedly for their part in the economic crisis.

Former Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Fred Goodwin told the Treasury Committee that he “could not be more sorry” for the failure of the banks. He, and other former bank chiefs, also admitted that the bonus culture had contributed to the crisis and needed to be reviewed.

However, in the same BBC report, Sir Fred came out with the line that if bankers felt they weren’t paid enough, they would leave.

That is a pretty low and irreponsible excuse in the midst of a gushing apology.

Sir Fred’s salary is £1.46 million a year. Isn’t there enough job satisfaction in that?  And just where, if they don’t think a salary of hundreds of thousands of pounds is enough, do these bosses think bankers will go if they are not paid the bonuses that bring this country to its knees?

Maybe, and this is just a long shot, they might actually spend time thinking about other things besides their next cash fix.