compassion and so forth, and obviously any coherent view of British identity would have to include all this. Though he stresses Britain's history, his view of it is largely free of the Thatcherite gloating over how the country civilised the 'immature races' in Asia and Africa and "saved' the rest of Europe from its internal barbarians. The bulldog that figured in Labour's election broadcast was not intended to be John Bull's nostalgic imperialist emblem. Blair's government has also repeatedly talked about an inclusive Britain, and the priority it has given to the work of its social exclu­ sion unit reflects this concern. n spite of its obvious virtues, the Prime Minister's vision remains sketchy and inadequate. At times, he too tends to see national identity as a waIy to sell Britain abroad, and concen­ trates on its narrow economic gains rather than its domestic moral and political value. I am not sure either that calling Britain theory, the Marxism and post-structuralism young when a quarter of its population is which they might have come across in their over 60 offers a sufficiently inclusive vision training. Tracy Emin's stated enjoyment of of it. Nor am I convinced that we should 'doing' Marxism and feminism at art college strive to become a beacon to the world or is touched with irony. Her tent owes more its moral leader as the Prime Minister pro­ to the 'girls just wanna have fun' humour of posed during his address to last year's Lab­ But Is More magazine than it does to her feminist our Party Conference. If others find some­ elders, Cindy Sherman or Mary Kelly. thing worth learning from the way we solve The yBas reject the seriousness of the our problems, we should be pleased. But to political art and photography of Camera­ imagine that we have some special talents work, Victor Burgin and Ten Eight maga­ in this area and that the rest of the world zine like, and also the generation of black should look to us for guidance is to invite It Art? British artists whose work began to appear disappointment and the charge of hubris. Forget the tortured soul in a in galleries from the mid-1980s- Chila Bur- Although the Prime Minister has pas­ man, Mitra Tabrizian, Sonia Boyce, David sionately complained about inadequate garret, today's artists are fully Bailey, Keith Piper and film-maker Isaac minority representation in the upper eche­ Julien — all of whose work engaged at some lons of our major political, economic signed-up members of the level with cultural theory, with questions of and other institutions, his vision of Britain cultural mainstream. identity and with new ethnicities. Nor is does not appear to be fully sensitive to cul­ there any sign of the whole wave of art tural plurality. It is intended to open up Angela McRobbie treads work which developed in relation to the cri­ spaces for minorities within the dominant the path from Bohemia sis of Aids and HIV. structure rather than to broaden its Some critics, notably John Roberts, cultural base, to create greater opportuni­ to Big Business have argued that this disengagement with ties for members of minority communities theory allows a new licentious and profane to rise within the dominant culture rather Philistinism to emerge, particularly as post­ than to pluralise it in the light of their he Sensation exhibition held at the modern art has become over-institution­ distinct cultural sensibilities. Blair's Royal Academy in London last alised. The cynical, apolitical indifference, search for the 'Third Way' has a strong year demonstrated how the work as well as the weary, not to say tawdry, dis­ economic and political dimension but little of 'young British artists' is now engagement of many of the pieces (Sarah cultural content. It is not adequately Tphenomenally successful and simultaneous­ Lucas' soiled mattress with phallic-shaped embedded in a searching critique of the ly less special. With Damien Hirst's magnif­ fruit pieces casually thrown on top, or, for shallow moral culture thrown up by most icent shark on display to greet the visitors, that matter, Tracy Emin's tent) certainly western societies. contemporary conceptual art suddenly, and says something about how art now per­ All this may perhaps explain why Blair's spectacularly, crashed through the barriers. ceives itself and where it also places itself. vision of Britain has not fully resonated Sculpture could be something that was sim­ Acknowledging, and even endorsing, what with the ethnic minorities. It has not in­ ply interesting to look at. Kobena Mercer has described as the 'vul­ spired and mobilised them on a large scale, The new brand of art - spearheaded by garity and stupidity of everyday life', this is or led him to do for them what he has done Hirst but envisaged and endorsed by the casual, promiscuous, populist art which for women. whole group now known as the yBas - bold­ wishes to be repositioned within the chat- Women fit into Blair's vision of Britain, ly declares that art is no longer the preroga­ show world of celebrity culture, alongside the ethnic minorities do not and require a tive of the elite, and its less special status the sponsorship deals, inside the restau­ greater imaginative effort. Although it is warrants more attention. Not that we are rants and at the very heart of consumer generous in its spirit and points in the witnessing a new democracy or a radicalisa- culture. This is art made for a prime-time right direction, it needs to be deepened tion in the field of art. The young British society, where daytime TV encourages the and broadened.* artists distance themselves from all the art parading in public of private misfortunes

55 MARXISM TODAY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1998 ('My wife weighs 900 pounds' was the title boundaries of gender, class and ethnicity. While the explosive intensity of punk hur­ of one recent Jerry Springer show). Expo­ Rather than be startled by the new com­ tled towards the violent deaths of Sid and sure and confession are recurrent themes mercialism in art, we should recognise how Nancy, the yBas disavow such extremity. It in Sensation. The power of the popular slow to understand it an older generation of is as though neither life nor death are worth media to penetrate every moment of our social and cultural theorists has been. Now the effort of thinking or reflection. daily lives makes the tabloidisation of art there is a determination to stick the course The connection with youth culture leads inevitable. rather than give up and retrain, which the to the third unifying feature, which is the It is tempting, but not entirely satisfacto­ 'Art has got majority of fine art graduates did in the past. impact of rave and club culture and the ry, to explain all this on the grounds that off its What do we expect of an art show? Is it effects of Ecstasy. The extension of bodily nowadays art is simply good business, and pedestal, it enough that an exhibition like Sensation pleasures which underpin club culture also that these artists are 'Thatcher's children'. simply invited a degree of curiosity? The presents itself in the art, as does the anti- Liz Ellis has suggested that in this context has relieved artists appeared to be challenging critical intellectualism. The body is the focus of all the new art has reneged on all feminist itself of the judgement. The 'don't care' attitude had attention and the mind is left to lag behind. achievements and shorn itself of all recog­ burden of the effect of freeing them from the burden There is something of the informality of nisable ethics: it's art as political backlash. distance of being classified in terms of great, good, rave lingo and the crude coloration of rave I'd suggest a slightly different angle on mediocre or bad. party flyers in a good deal of this work. The the yBas. Ensconced inside the consumer and being In an aestheticised culture, art becomes Chapman Brothers' dolls have a drug- culture, less lonely and cut off, the new art expected to another transferable skill; train as an artist induced psychedelic and nightmarish qual­ simply becomes less important, it down­ embody deep to become a DJ, work nights in a club and ity about them, and, inevitably, the DJ is the real artist for the yBa generation. In the grades itself as an act of conscious bad and lasting get a commission to do an installation, faith. The Sensation exhibition did not make a video etc. Art can now be pursued series of club nights hosted by the ICA in require the usual quantities of cultural cap­ values' less grandiosely. And given that there are the Summer of 1997, the artists themselves ital to enjoy it. It did not invoke cathedral­ fewer traditional jobs to return to, the yBas took to the decks. But this is unexception­ like silence. It self-consciously staged itself seem to be aware that ducking and diving is al. How many under-30s don't want to be as shocking but was also completely unin- no longer the fate of unqualified working- DJs? The veneration of the DJ is now cul­ timidating. In this respect art has got off its class males. Sociologists have written ex­ turally the norm, as the single by the band pedestal, it has relieved itself of the burden tensively about the new world of work, Faithless indicates: God Is A DJ. of distance and of being expected to characterised by risk, uncertainty and tem­ ourth, and finally, there are the embody deep and lasting values. But if not porary contracts, but have not focused on self-curating and promotional all art can be great, and there are more and creative work. For this reason, no-one asks activities which the critics take as more people seeking to earn a living as an how much art, music and fashion the cul­ another mark of distinction of the artist, then this is a realistic strategy. ture society can actually accommodate? yBasF. From running their own shows to set­ The new 'lite' art also means the blurring How many cultural workers can there be? ting up shop, critics have seen all of these as of the boundaries between where art stops Although there is great diversity within commercial strategies. But these are also and everyday life commences. The singu­ this work, there are a number of things they ways of getting the work seen and com­ larity of art begins to dissolve. Is it a sculp­ share in common. First, there is a genera­ mented on, and getting away from unem­ ture or a dress by Hussein Chalayan? Is the tional revolt against the conviction and ployment. This locates the new artists in the video by Gillian Wearing titled Dancing at enthusiasm of their Marxist and feminist DIY tradition of punk and its aftermath, Peckham effective because it isn't real art, predecessors which has produced a marked and in Thatcher's enterprise culture. The just a slice of urban life? Given the 'Nikefi- anti-intellectualism in their work. Second, enormous promotional energy involved in cation' of culture, are the Goldsmiths grad­ they relate to popular culture by adopting rave culture also serves as a model. Putting uates literally 'Just Doing It'? Maybe they it wholesale, its gestures, language and iden­ on a show is much like doing your own club are simply making things based on ideas. tity, without attempting to explore it and night. None of the pieces on show at the And. in so doing, they are deliberately chal­ then elevate it back up into the art world. Sensation exhibition would be out of place lenging the art world with its patrician crit­ Popular culture is staged post-ironically in a club, from Whiteread's sepulchral ics and its lofty standards. as presentation rather than as representa­ baths, to Hirst's rotting cow's head, from In the late-1990s, instead of demystifying tion, as though to reassure the viewer that the fleshy hugeness of Jenny Saville's can­ art (the traditional strategy of the left) the there is absolutely nothing clever going on vases, to the Chapman Brothers' man­ yBas are redefining it, repositioning it and. here. These artists deliberately seek out the nequins with their grotesquely positioned to use New Labour language, 'rebranding most downgraded forms, for example, the sexual organs. And this is conveyed in the art' in keeping with what it means to be an 'Sod You Gits' tabloid headline of the presentation. Casually strewn, or jammed artist today, which cannot mean being pure Sarah Lucas 1990 piece of the same name. up close to each other, the anti-intellectual­ about sponsorship and poor in the process. This flat endorsement of popular culture ism of the ethos pervaded the spatial organ­ isation of the show. s students from more diverse and its transgressive pleasures describes a backgrounds get into art hedonism also connected with this particu­ Overall this work confounds most in­ school, Pierre Bourdieu's no­ lar 'tabloid loving' generation. sights on the postmodern condition by not tion of the artist as a member Even extreme or violent material re­ so much showing a 'waning in affect' as sug­ Aof a small bohemian elite, able to stay poor mains devoid of social or political content gesting there is nothing beyond affect, no­ in the short term in order to achieve success or comment. Sensation exists in a genera- thing but affect. In this sense, the yBas ex­ in the longer term, no longer holds. For tionally-spccific chill-out zone, where after pose postmodernism by revealing the trust thousands of young people making a living the pleasure, thoughts of death and mortal­ in theory to be a trust in the world, a kind in Bohemia has become the norm. The cul­ ity make a seemingly inevitable appear­ of humanism. Even postmodernism had its ture society is the labour market whether ance. But this is not marked by a sudden own repository of truth, that of thinking, that means being a Scottish painter or a gravity. There is curiosity, a touch of mor­ intellectualism, philosophy. The yBas London-based conceptualist. Instead of dis­ bidity (as in Ron Muecks' model of a would rather read the News Of The World. missing the tie-ins and spin-offs, as merely miniature corpse carefully laid out naked They would rather go down the pub. commercial, we have to take into account and still sprouting hair), but otherwise a Is this disregard a pose? A question? A the historical moment of the yBas. They casual interest in death and decay. challenge? Does it contain any hint of have been brought up with their peers to This forges another link with the tradi­ social criticism? How long can they get by venerate and value the conspicuous con­ tion of British youth cultures. Two pieces in with this scanty repertoire? sumption of the 1980s. Few of the genera­ Sensation reference the impact of punk. The overall Miteness' is countered only tion educated in the 1960s have really come Marcus Harvey's Myra Hindley evokes by the literal heaviness of the work of the to grips with the power that money and Malcolm McLaren's God Save Myra Hind- two most sophisticated of the yBas, Hirst consumerism have over a younger genera­ ley T shirts, and Gavin Turk's Pop is a life- and Whiteread. They each bring a primal tion. This new 'love of money' crosses the size cross-breed of Sid Vicious and Elvis. belief in the sheer weight and solidity of

56 MARXISM TODAY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1998 (even decaying) matter and by extension a who somehow come up with an appropri­ in a tradition of British popular culture. belief in sculpture itself. For them art pro­ ate vocabulary for debate. As Bourdieu From Butlins to Carry On films, from Sid vides some minimal core of value, for the would put it: 'They create the creators'. Vicious to Chat magazine, from Men rest, in a further subversion of the We are left then with a curious scenario Behaving Badly to the Girlie Show, it is as Duchamp tradition, it is virtually indistin­ in the 'culture society', with the breakdown though they are recycling all the pop cul­ guishable from anything else, though, of of high and low culture being more appar­ ture they have absorbed. The irreverence course, this is also their point. Art ought ent than real. Even when the fine artists also extends to the world of ideas, philoso­ not to be so different, so special. 'If the artist seem to think they are blurring the bound­ phy and learning. If the artist is no longer Yet even if the critics are agreed in the is no longer aries between what is art and what is not. tortured, isolated and starving in the gar- promotional dynamic of the yBas taking tortured, the critics, collectors and the academics rick, neither is she/he engrossed in the priority over a deep commitment to art. bring their own professional vocabularies world of the mind. The yBas exonerate the work is nonetheless talked about. This isolated and to bear on the work, and confirm that, yes, themselves from responsibility. They opt may be the intention, to demonstrate - as starving in even if it's bad art, it is art. for infantilism instead. But they are merely the holiday-making escapade staged the garret, his leaves the artists themselves tossing back at us the values of the Thatch­ er years. by final year fine art students at Leeds Uni­ neither is in the full glare of publicity. It is versity in June 1998 did - that what art is their work which creates the Maybe our responsibility is to ask tough depends on what the critics and the media she or he chatter which in turn keeps the questions of them. What will happen when say it is. engrossed in Twheels of the cultural economy in motion. the sponsorship runs out? Will they not at The key factor is the existence of critical the world of Such cynicism, such transparency. But in some point have to confront the failings of bodies who are all engaged in bringing the the mind' making this point arc they saying anything the free market and recognise the need work into discourse, into language and into new? Of course not, but that's the point. for public sector support for artistic popular controversy. If this is then what Who needs newness? We are left with a activity? Can the two black artists whose really enervates art, the scale and volume scenario where art is no longer great, no work was shown at Sensation, afford to do of the talk is a sign of the privileged status longer exceptional. It is just another trickle without a sense of history and of politics? of fine art. of commentary which happens to take the These were evident in the Sensation pieces, With the vBas we see a drift from the art form of a series of photographs, a video or but only just. world downwards to the vulgar, cheap and another installation. Yinka Shonibares' current work marks a tacky, a cynical story about merely liking The one single question which the yBas return to history. Chris Offili retains a pop. and doing self-consciously artistic succeed in posing is that of the place, value playfulness through his use of elephant things with it. while avoiding the tedium of and meaning of art in the late 1990s. Their turds delivered fresh from London Zoo, trying to be clever. irreverence, their populism and their brash but now with a stronger assertion of the The outcome is post-ironic. But still, the commercialism challenge the pretentious­ politics of new ethnicities. The more popu­ yBas attract huge amounts of attention ness and the snobbishness of the art world. lar status of art ought to be seen as a won­ because what they do is still notionally art But the work itself adamantly refuses the derful opportunity for young artists. The and supported by Saatchi. This makes it role of social criticism. danger is that there is a slide instead into comprehensible to the middle class critics Instead, the yBas locate themselves with­ self-congratulation. •

57 MARXISM TODAY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1998