The courts used to be called upon to decide whether usually literary works were art – and so could be excused the charge of pornography. (So little was the establishment’s belief in the power of art that it was thought only trash could deprave and corrupt – I suppose that belief was born of their long experience of falling asleep at the opera.) The burdens imposed upon the judicial mind move on, whilst the essential absurdity remains.
In the case of Mr Halpin other artists, somehow sanctioned by society, have turned state’s evidence against him. A certain Mr Ben ‘Eine’ Flynn, whose work has been presented to Barack Obama by David Cameron (I bet they put it on the wall just whilst he’s visiting) – so it must be art, although Mr Flynn too has previously clocked up five convictions for criminal damage in the past. You might think he was in danger of losing his licence, but somehow the process seems to work in the other direction. He testified as an ‘expert witness’ (that category responsible for many a conspicuous miscarriage of justice) that Tox’s ‘tags’ and ‘dubs’ were ‘incredibly basic’, lacking ‘skill, flair or unique style’. That seems a little reactionary: is Mr Flynn spearheading a campaign for the restoration of life drawing to our art schools? Apart from ‘unique style’ the same was probably said of every major artist since Van Gogh.
Not even Halpin’s record of being able to earn money from his work secured his status, nor his claim that the offending items were actually the work of forgers – forgeries presumably being society’s ultimate validation of art.
So it would appear my walls are protected by the majesty of the law from ‘basic’ graffiti, but not from that Leonardo turning up and decorating them with his ‘Last Supper’. All I could do last time was to give the place over to the horses. Where’s the law and order agenda? I blame that pinko, Ken Clarke.
