Dean Blunt, Cubitt

More so than most any other contemporary artist, Dean Blunt’s fine art praxis is often understood as sarcastic clever-clever archness; not to be taken seriously. At best, this reaction takes the form of a wry smile. More often than not, however, spectators are apoplectically frustrated at the sense that they’re ‘being had’ (as was especially the case when Blunt played a Kevin Hart DVD in full to an unsuspecting paying audience at an ICA event). It is unclear what it is about Blunt’s work which transforms audiences otherwise happy to indulge the tomfoolery of, say, Ed Fornieles, into outraged philistines vigilant against emperors’ new clothes. Yes, Blunt’s work is certainly mischievous. However, like the music for which he is better known, it internalises its irony in a way which does not negate, and indeed is a necessary condition of, its total sincerity.