Artes Mundi Prize

Oh Gawd, here we go again. The Welsh determination to outdo the Turner Prize by means of its £40,000 Artes Mundi Prize, awarded every two years, has produced another bummer. Indian "artist" N. S. Harsha grabs the loot for a body of work which includes this piffle, actually a pair of piffles: Come Give Us A Speech (2007-8), indeterminate wallpaper daubed on six panels with acrylic paint, and The School Within (2008), a floor painting with real cushions scattered about. This tripe is supposed to tell us something about the human condition! The judging panel must be made up of hermits to learn from it. The question is: Why did I get this news from ArtDaily, which seems to think Cardiff is in London, not from BBC News? Answer: they mainly work a 5-day week at BBC News. Once the football results are in on Saturday, that's it. Auntie BBC lives in a genteel English past, when Sunday meant church bells, lawn-mowers and clipping the privet hedge.