Apr
14
Shoplifting in the name of art
“Being an artist and a single mum, you became very creative in what’s available to you. It can be very expensive spending money on materials, paying rent and fees. I just need to think on my feet. Stealing or robbing or appropriating — that’s what I do.”
- Roisin Byrne, quoted in ‘Goldsmiths star’s shoplifting in the name of art’, Evening Standard, 13 April 2010
AW: This is pretty unshocking for a Goldsmith’s student as its just taboo-breaking: first year, lesson one. A statement from the collage is also pretty standard Goldsmiths:
“An ethical review process is in place to ensure students and tutors are protected from engaging in actions that might bring harm upon them, the public or the college. It is, however, unusual for a tutor to subject a student to an ethical review prior to the execution of a work. This discourages innovation.”
AW: Byrne seems to feel she is justified, not only as ‘a single mum’, but also as ‘an artist’ to break the law. I wonder whether Goldsmith’s stance represents a brave permissiveness favouring freedom of expression over legal and ethical considerations, or if the collage is simply shirking its responsibility for its students?
What is clear is that neither is prepared to take legal and moral responsibility for stealing in the name of art. A stance that I think makes Byrne’s work conceptually quite flimsy, and the collage look rather negligent.
