The Thousands

Jennifer Higgie! Co-editor of frieze! The best art magazine. Giving a talk about the best topic. Art jokes of the 20th century and why no-one laughs at them. Mind you I wasn’t laughing when she didn’t reply to my email Q&A this week. But the last laugh will be on her, because I’ll be that lady who gets up at the end of her talk and ruins the vibe with lengthy enquiries. Here they are:

One of my favourite columns in frieze is ‘From The Mailbox’, where you publish inappropriate art press releases. For instance, from last month: “Dear frieze, The armadillo never imagined that after its fatal death his body was going to be picked up by [artist name omitted] taken to a crematorium and then to a lab where diamonds are manufactured from the ashes of an individual’s ‘loved one’.” Do people ever get upset that there’s such a funny column in a magazine that’s supposed to be about Art?

Shane Danielsen once said, on the Guardian‘s art and design blog, that “we are trained, both as viewers and as consumers, to accept only the grave and magisterial as great.” Who is providing this training? And are they accredited?

Is Jeff Koons serious?