Art?

[lexin]

Standing in the lift of the Dull Grey Tower, I came across a poster for the Civil Service Art Competition. I'd had no idea there was one, so I read on.

Aparrently, the entrants are being asked to "represent what it means to be a civil servant" and the work should "be underpinned by the civil service values of honesty, integrity, impartiality and objectivity." In art.

One of the suggested media (mediums?) on the poster - it doesn't appear on the website - was clay. Which made me wonder...how would you represent honesty, integrity, impartiality and objectivity in clay?

That'll distract me all day, now.

Comments

[oursin]

Do they include interpretative dance/performance...?

[lexin]

I don't think so. I think it must be something capable of being hung on a wall/put on a shelf. But I could be wrong about that...

[legionseagle]

Now you've got that rhyme from the Joan Aiken story, "The Mysterious Barricades" running in my head; "Duty done without a swerve is/Aimed at by the Civil Service".

[legionseagle]

Which made me wonder...how would you represent honesty, integrity, impartiality and objectivity in clay?


By a satirical modelling of Tony Blair's feet?

[lexin]

Snigger.

[actionreplay.livejournal.com]

Bust of Nelson Mandela?

[lexin.livejournal.com]

Well, that takes care of the honesty and integrity, but I'm not so sure about the objectivity and the impartiality... Good idea, though.

[actionreplay.livejournal.com]

Also additional small bust of Desmond Tutu? Who, due to not being a member of any political party, was able to take a good impartial look at SA politics (and conclude that apartheid sucked)?

[smirra.livejournal.com]

Since when is objectivity a feature of art? And what's appropriate enough to be be displayed in government buildings?
Apart from arrangement of framing/display (that's a relief), do they provide colour by numbers as well?

[lexin.livejournal.com]

what's appropriate enough to be be displayed in government buildings?

I've been in some meeting rooms which contained absolutely dire art (IMO!), including one particular meeting room in my previous office which had a picture of a beetle done in green splodges. I used to while away time in dull meetings wondering who'd chosen the thing. (I gather, because I've been told, that there is a store of 'government art' somewhere from which senior managers doing up areas can choose. Why they'd included that piece defies logic.)

[tazlet.livejournal.com]

I expect Rodin could have done.

[lexin.livejournal.com]

He was a genius, of course.