Gillian Bates takes a look at the lighter side of life and work as a freelance in the arts.
I came home from watching an excellent satirical play at the Nottingham Playhouse to a surreal situation: Tessa Jowell, the Culture Minister had announced that we should all be following a policy of ?art for art?s sake?.
For a moment I thought I was still watching ?Feelgood? ? an extremely funny play about New Labour ? but no, there was Jeremy Paxman, and there was the screen flashing up very long Jowell sentences about how art enhances our lives. It has been a long, long time since I cheered at Newsnight but there I was? whooping.
Then something even stranger happened. Tessa had declined to appear, I know not why, so they fielded Anthony ?Angel of the North? Gormley instead. Not a politician. An artist. At the start of the interview, Paxman was seen in an uncharacteristically defensive posture: arms folded across his body, leaning as far away from Gormley as possible. A strange pose from the man who normally lurks like a temporarily restrained Rottweiler. We soon found out why. Paxman?s characteristic aggression with politicians (?who is this bastard and why is he lying to me??) wasn?t going to work with an artist. Gormley knows exactly who he is. He walks the walk, paints the canvas, moulds the clay and creates the visions.
By the end of the interview, Paxman was reduced to adopting the fake, stern demeanour of a student schoolteacher who can?t quite manage to hide his delight as his brightest pupil shows off ? because to try to humiliate Gormley was a waste of time. Jeremy knew this and he also knew something else: long after he, Newsnight, New Labour, Tessa, Anthony, you and me are dust, The Angel of the North will still stand, wings outstretched, delighting, mystifying and challenging generations yet to come. Art for Art?s sake, and triumphant.
Gillian Bates is a freelance arts marketing consultant. e: gillianbates@gkbmarketing.freeserve.co.uk