Famous British artist seeks change in the law to slowly kill himself in public.
David Hockney a much loved British artist was this month guest editor on the BBC news programme Today. During the programme he railed magnificently about the petty restrictions and interferences to natural liberties that this Labour government had imposed upon its people. Hockney is as you would expect a natural libertarian, and being a true Yorkshireman, in his 71st year, he has a tendency to speak his own mind, and speak it loudly. Yorkshiremen are not famous for pussyfooting about, as a Yorkshireman myself I can both sympathise with this.
However it was Hockneys primary rant that caught my attention. As a serious smoker David Hockney sought to wind back some of the legislation that has prevented smokers imposing their dreadful fumes upon the rest of us. He wants to have the freedom to be smelly in public, in pubs, and restaurants, in libraries, in theatres and cinemas. He wants the right, and by God he will have it, to kill yourself slowly in public.
Now David Hockney is a much loved and respected artist, he is one of very few that have made a genuine contribution to our creative culture in the past 60 years. It would be a great sadness to see this happen. It is however ironic that David would never call himself an artist though, he is without doubt a considerable artist, he would call himself a painter pronounced “paaaynter” in broad Yorkshire. There are many younger Conceptual Artists happy to aspire to the title Artist that I would be much more happy to see dying slowly in public. As a conceptual work of art killing yourself slowly in public as much to be recommended, it would rid us of at least one conceptual artist, and maybe more with abit of encouragement.
