What's The Point Of It?

An exhibition of works by Martin Creed, a Turner prize winning artist, is opening in London's Hayward Gallery tomorrow.

I like the title of his show - "What's The Point Of it?"  - and I find it a little frustrating that Creed isn't able to answer that question in this review on the BBC website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25925354

His answer is: "I don't know.  It's a question I often ask myself.  I don't really understand it but it means a lot to me."

For the uninitiated, Creed won the Turner prize for an empty room in which the lights go on and off.

Apparently, this exhibition is "great - one of the best solo exhibitions I've seen in the gallery"writes Adrian Searle in The Guardian:

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/jan/27/martin-creed-hayward-exhibition

Overall, I get the impression that it's designed to make you feel self-conscious.  I like the sound of some of it.

For instance,  "Half the Air in a Given Space", a room full of white balloons that you have to navigate through, sounds interesting.  "The experience is an unalloyed pleasure.  It is also, oddly, a very sculptural one," writes Searle.

 On the other hand, I feel quite disgusted by the idea of the video of a woman who "enters a blank white space, crouches, defecates and promptly exits".  Does my strong reaction prove that it's art?

As I said, I like the title, "What's The Point Of It?".

It seems to me that there used to be a point to art up until the arrival of the post-modern movement.  I was going to write that now,  anything that makes you think is counted as art.  But I'm not even sure that's the case.

Would a room with the lights going on and off make me think?  Yup.  It would make me wonder whether someone's having a laugh at my expense.