life without buildings

have you seen the current becks’ futures exhibition at the ica? for those that don’t know, becks’ futures is an annual art show sponsored by the beer company, promoting up and coming talent. so basically it’s the turner prize with artists you’re even less likely to have heard of. i imagine the becks curators pride themselves on taking an outsider position relative to the much more “art establishment” turner. but it seems with the turner itself heading ever further “outside”, the becks is struggling to keep a respectable distance.

or at least this what i’m assuming given how utterly rubbish the show is, and indeed has been the past few years. i can honestly say that i can recall nothing of any artistic merit – unless you call walls inscribed with suggested names for art shows and shelves filled with someone’s show collection art.

i find it hard to talk about modern art these days without sounding like a bit of a fuddy duddy (an ill-informed one at that). but i tend to come out of most of these shows wondering where the art was. can any of those artists paint? can they sculpt? can they draw? can they do anything other sit around thinking up/co-opting “clever” ideas and then generally executing them badly?

anyway, this post isn’t meant to be a rant about modern art, but i mention it because one of the contributors to this year’s show is one sue tompkins from glasgow. a little bell went off when i saw that name, a bell that kept dinging until it connected with a band from glasgow with an art school singer called sue tompkins. that band is/was life without buildings and they are/were bloody great.

sorry sue, but on the evidence of that show, i wish you’d go back to doing the band thing.

is is and the irs (tugboat)
let’s get out (tugboat) [both ripped from my vinyl copy of the single, though this second one is available on their album]
new town (live in sydney 12/09/01) [courtesy of their website]

EDIT: top 2 mp3s have been archived to here.