The inanity of the Year of the Artist notwithstanding, the Royal Mail’s stamp commemorating it, soon to be displayed on the facade of Tate Modern, of all places, misses the point: it shows Tobi Corney’s photograph of the human eye. If human organs were required, the stamp should have shown the brain, or, failing that, the heart—the symbolic home of love and passion and the zest for life. The image of the eye only exposes the superficiality of the event and of the underlying concept of art.

Addendum (February 21, 2001)

I was happily reading David Lee’s art newsletter, which arrived today, when I spotted a photograph of the stamp commemorating the Year of the Artist.[1] “Hey,” I mumbled, “I, too, wrote about this silly stamp!” But then I started reading the text itself: “The inanity…” Only then I spotted my name. David calls me “a conceptual artist of sorts” (huh?) and “a professional irritant” (yeah!). He also points the reader to my book on the Web, the repository of all my electronic postcards, like this one. I kept grinning as I read the piece. It is always such a joy to stumble upon a kindred spirit, someone who is on the same side in the abominable art world. The Jackdaw, anyone?

Footnote

1. The Jackdaw, No. 6, March 2001, p. 21.