"Yes, but is it ART?!"

For the second night, I ventured out in Newcastle with friends to sample the various delights of The Late Shows where loads of Newcastles art spaces were opened up free to the general public and had special events on to boot. Free transport round the venues, which spanned both Newcastle and Gateshead, was also provided in the shape of the Cityhopper sightseeing buses.

We started our evening at the Waygood Art Boutique in central Newcastle. They promised "Late Shift" - "a cross between a cookery demonstration, a factory production line and an art-making process..."

What we GOT was two women dressed up a bit like Kim and Aggie when they get going in "How Clean is Your House?" who started piling Tesco Basics bread against the back wall and giving a running commentary as they did it regarding the squishiness and general quality of their building material. The "audience" were outside the window peering in (hence the reflections). I have to admit, we didn't stick around for long and I've no idea what was going to happen after they'd piled their 100-or-so loaves of sliced white but I have a sneaky suspicion that the "art" bit was the recording of the onlookers comments and reactions to what they were viewing...
The installation was opposite a fairly popular city pub, filled with disappointed black+white clad football fans, so I suspect they got some more "choice" comments later in the evening. I applaud their courage, but in answer to the title... Art? Nope, not in my book.

The rest of the evening was better although still mixed, we popped in to get a preview of the newly re-built city library (ace), went to a ceramics workshop off the Westgate Road (nice, but expected there to be more there) and then to the Hatton Gallery which promised a special theme night to co-incide with their display on "Art of the 50's" ... providing milkshakes and some 50's tunes playing on a little CD player doesn't *exactly* constitute a "themed evening" but the milkshakes and the sit down were welcome. For my final venue I took myself off to a distant studio out along the river which is described in tomorrow's blip so I'll leave it there.

Excellent evening in that it opened my eyes to a lot of places in the town which I simply didn't know existed and I'll keep ahold of the events leaflet for that reason alone.