The Thousands

I’ve spent too long at art school to say for sure, but I get the impression the ‘real world’ thinks the ‘art world’ is all about expressing yourself. Feelings and emotions. That kind of thing. Well I guess it kind of is. But mostly it’s about sourcing materials, grant applications, bureaucracy, curators and spackle. Nonetheless, contemporary art is still fascinated by – or perhaps has returned to – stuff we think but don’t say.

Vocal Thoughts doesn’t slip back into the old cliché of the troubled but brilliant artist. Oh, well, actually it does. Most of the Facebook plugs I’ve seen for this show have been about the legendary bipolar musician-artist Daniel Johnston. Probably with good reason. Johnston’s drawings contain a kind of hectic energy that is likely to refresh anything in this show that is too over-thought-out. But maybe that’s just another assumption about ‘outsider art’.

Anyway, feelings are more complicated than they used to be. Vocal Thoughts deals with feelings, and thinking about your feelings, and expressing your feelings, and thinking about expressing your feelings, and how expressing your feelings that you’ve thought about can make other people feel uncomfortable. This show has got everything from self-help videos to a choir that sings on the subject of the audience’s complaints about parking fines and marriage breakups.