Opening night and the place was swamped. As usual everything had come together. The show was open and the audience was arriving. There was indeed a good vibe and a strong buzz despite the kilo’s of Burberry being worn inside. Beagle was plain old happy to be there right until the fair director approached him, walky talky in one hand, glass of champagne in the other and asked with a smile if he could stop the people from entering the ‘Don’t Love Me Too Much’ installation for awhile. Apparently some of the galleries complained that the sound of the glass shattering against metal was scaring away prospective buyers. H. Beagle liked to hear things breaking and found it more plausible that they had been frightened by the dead images on the walls.
The complaint was perhaps fair and Beagle triumphed in it; one of the great art debates was revealed in a simple sound; are we talking about the experience of art or the possession of it? When people are paying good money to rent space, value goes towards the price tag and client is king. Is there a tyranny in art? H. Beagle became suspicious, he felt alone in placing value on process and experience, like an alien in a speed race style pushing of products. Beagle didn’t mind pissing people off, but he wanted to be a good neighbor and tried to hold back the crowds.
A line formed and blew up into a tangled circle, love was remembered, bottles broke and people started smoking in at art fair in the year 2009. It got to the point that it was more about the booze than the broken hearts, the right party had emerged from the riot. The right party, in the wrong place, and the tension was thicker than the smoke (only a couple people were smoking anyway). H. Beagle continued to try and keep the peace, but the third time he spotted the fair director headed his way he decided to be a clever dog and let it all play out alone as he wagged off to explore other scents.
