Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art, opening today at London's Barbican Art Gallery, presents contemporary art the way, well, Martians might see it—that is, stripped of context and considered solely as enigmatic sociological detritus. What, for example, did the Earth people do with Sherrie Levine's bronze-cast urinal? Is it an altar, or a pissoir? And—once it's bleached of
all that presumptive irony—surely Scott King's Pink Cher, pictured, proves a call to join the subject's revolution. Gimmicky? Perhaps. But co-curator Lydia Yee, for one, is gamely staying in character. "Art is a particularly difficult concept for Martians to grasp," she explains. "They tend to try to make sense of artworks as artifacts with a functional purpose. Therefore, ready-mades and artworks that include everyday terrestrial objects are particularly confusing from the Martian point of view." In other words, the day E.T. finally comes to town, we should all expect to be greeted with a resounding "Huh?"
Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art, today through May 18, Barbican Art Gallery, Silk St., London, 020-7638-4141, barbican.org.uk
MAYA SINGER
6:54 AM, March 06, 2008
Photo: Scott King
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