More protests against Rachel Whiteread... http://www.thechapmagazine.com/protest.html THE CHAP ART PROTEST On 25th May 2004, twenty seven followers of The Chap handcuffed themselves around Rachel Whiteread’s ‘Untitled (Room 101)’ in the Cast Courts of the Victoria and Albert Museum, as a protest against the pointless intrusion by contemporary art pieces into public areas. The Chaps and Chapettes formed a “human cufflink” around the 18X12-foot sculpture and recited the final lines of John Keats’ Ode on a Grecian Urn: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty, - that is all/Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” The human cufflink produced no reaction whatsoever from security officers at the V&A, so the Chaps climbed on to the sculpture and continued the protest from its surprisingly wobbly surface. Even then, they were able to dispatch the contents of several hip flasks of fine whisky before attracting any attention. A stand-off ensued between the tweed-clad protesters, emboldened by their unassailable height and whisky, and security guards. The Chap's spokesman agreed with a negotiator for the V&A to come down, if provided with a stepladder and an ashtray. The latter, alas, was not forthcoming, and the Chaps descended, one by one, with unsmoked pipes and cigarettes clasped between their teeth. Various members of curating and conservation staff then appeared, and attempted to herd the Chaps into a corner to give them a good ticking off. The exit to the Cast Court had been sealed off by security by then. There was only one course of action. The Chaps politely but firmly asked to be let out, and, showing remarkable dignity, filed out of the V&A with a security escort. For over a century, the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Cast Court has been a repository of plaster reproductions of the world’s great monuments, including life-size replicas of Trajan's column, the Pórtico de la Gloria in Santiago de Compostela and Michelangelo's David. Originally intended as a reference for classics and arts students unable to visit the originals in European cities, the Cast Court provides a place to contemplate some of the wonders of the cultural world. Until, that is, November 2003, when Modus Operandi, public art consultants who have developed the BBC's art programme, invited Rachel Whiteread to install a piece of her work in the Cast Courts, because “the resonance and mythology of the space might fascinate her.” It seems, however, that the resonance and mythology of the space didn’t fascinate Ms Whiteread, because she decided to make yet another plaster cast of an empty room, this time Room 101 at the old BBC Building. George Orwell purportedly used it as a reference for his Room 101 in the novel 1984 – probably because he saw it every day during the two years he worked at the BBC and it was as good as any other number. But hold on a minute – what has this got to do with Trajan’s Column? “Room 101,” says Ms Whiteread, “stands as a metaphor in the collective memory and the popular imagination for the worst thing that can happen to you.” Indubitably, but where does Michelangelo’s David fit in to that? Not at all, is sadly the answer, since many of the plaster reproductions had to be moved out of the way to squeeze in Ms Whiteread’s gargantuan cube of plaster. Studying the informative placard displayed next to the sculpture, we read that, in fact, “Other casts in the gallery have been arranged by Rachel Whiteread”. The result is that, from every angle, one’s view of the other exhibits in Cast Court 46B are obscured by ‘Untitled (Room 101)’. The Chap objects to the V&A giving a single artist the exclusive privilege of reflecting on the contents of the Cast Courts, thus denying the same pleasure to the general public. Visitors to Tate Modern are not, conversely, forced to peer around classical sculptures in order to view someone shouting on a giant video screen. This clumsy bit of curating seems to reflect the fear held by all public museums of being perceived as stuffy and old fashioned. The Chap says: it’s alright to be stuffy and old fashioned, and better than trying to keep up with the trendy crowd and getting it hopelessly wrong in the process.