Meta-Press For The Liverpool Biennial

I wasn’t planning on heading down for the Liverpool Biennial, but today I’m not so sure, after they sent out the best press release I’ve ever seen.

Titled 11 paragraphs: A brief exploration of the Liverpool Biennial Press Release, the document - after a nice reference to ‘the new tertiary level of rehashed, reproduced internet wordage’ - considers the press response to the Biennial, noting that 70% of headlines garnered focus on Yoko Ono’s contributions, matching her pole position in the first paragraph of the previous press release, with the remainder of the coverage tackling Jarvis Cocker’s curation, and other projects given second billing first time around.

Then it gets really good:

Clichés aside, are we therefore to conclude from these brief observations that the amount of column space per Biennial strand directly equates to the selected information given in the official Press Release?

…There is also the accusation that the press had pretty much written their reviews before even arriving in Liverpool. This is an area that Press Corps will be investigating more fully over the coming month but it is clear that many of the broadsheets have not only followed the template of the 2004 Press Release, but they have also shadowed each others articles, counteracting or agreeing with certain observations or stereotypes, or even jostling their egos a little as many of them actually suggest that they indeed should be on the next John Moores jury.

…Therefore, on one level it shows the power and directness of the Press Release to get to where it needs to go in order for the issues contained within it to be circulated widely, irrespective of whether those issues are out of context, or of the opinion of the organisation who sends it, rather than the opinion of the artists that it purportedly represents. In some ways, it could be argued that the journalist is the instrument of distribution, the thing that sits in-between the press officer and the public they seek to reach. On another level, it demonstrates that if the press follow the key indicators of the Press Release without subsequent interrogation, they are not necessarily being critical of the work on show but are in effect responding to the propositions and sentiment contained within the text, a complaint that has been aired widely especially by artists and organisers during both the 2002 and the 2004 Biennials.

Wow! I’m not sure if Press Corps, the folk behind the release, are quite, quite mad in sending this out to the very people they take a pop at in the course of their meta-release, or bloody geniuses.

Either way, I’ve long wanted to curate a show featuring a display of press releases (with small works of art sent out to publicise it, naturally) becuase, as Press Corps point out, they’re so often a readymade source of critical appraisal and a lazily adopted route to understanding; and so often have a far greater impact on a show’s reception than - gasp! - the work itself.

If I ever find anyone daft enough to give me space to mount such a show, one thing’s sure: 11 paragraphs: A brief exploration of the Liverpool Biennial Press Release will be the centrepiece, one of a tiny number of these missives that rises to the level of being an interesting text-based work in its own right, which, of course, questions the conceit behind exhibiting press releases in a gallery space in the first place.

Posted at 3pm on 20/10/04 by Jack Mottram to the art and culture category.
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Tags: art, journalism, liverpool