What could be more arty than artists creating an art exhibition about hating art?
Art Hate are inviting us, and you, to hate art, so unfortunately we can't write a fluffy, preppy preview because then we'd just be the innocent bystander. Hate art, Art Hate? Well then we hate you and all your contradicting messages. You're either one of us or one of them, so make up your mind. Maybe this could work as a Hate Art Hate manifesto?
From the 21st to the 25th September Art Hate will take over Cork Street with their contradictory message of love brought across through hate. There's a gateway marking the entrance declaring “Art will make us free”, and at the opposite end another gateway which says “To each their own” - it's the very same slogan that was placed above the entrances of Nazi concentration camps. And if that's not enough controversy for you then perhaps revel at this shocker: their use of the swastika in their work. The swastika hangs from a gallows, converting it “from a symbol of hate to a symbol of hate resistance”.
Using these symbols and slogans is pushing art shock to a new level, though through this the group – which includes Bily Childish, Jamie Reid and Jimmy Cauty – want to expose “the folly of man hiding under slogans and symbols” and not provoke upset or show disrespect. To put it plainly, these guys are just sheep in wolf's clothing, seeking to explore the meaning of hatred through examples of human cruelty. But perhaps making an art exhibition evocative of a concentration camp is pushing the boundaries a little too far. The “To each their own” gate has yet to get the permission from the council to be put up, but the “Art will make us free” slogan that has permission also references a Nazi slogan – Arbeit macht frei (or “Work will make you free”).
The exhibition will see collages, propaganda, documentary photographs and all sorts of things relating to the Art Hate 'movement'. Whether or not the work will be sandwiched between two gates of Nazi slogans is yet to be seen. Maybe we've burst their hate bubble just a little bit. Who knows...
Art Hate is on until the 25th of September.
Read Lauren's interview with Billy Childish, February 2010.
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