Diana Wichtel: Are these beer crates art? I think so

Nothing like a work of art to divide public opinion. Especially when the piece in question is nothing like a work of art.

Auckland solo dad and former plasterer David Stewart wins the $10,000 Trust Waikato Contemporary Art award with a controversial installation of five beer crates full of home brew.

Really, you couldn't have made it up. But then we said that about Helen Clark's controversial, if brief, career as a non painter. In no time at all, the media were circling, sensing an opportunity to get a lot of vox pops of people going "What a load of old bollocks".

No, that's not fair. The debate was far more sophisticated than that. "A lot of pointless, self-serving drivel," was how one sophisticated old punter at the exhibition described it to the gleeful television reporter.

Or, as talkback host Paul Henry framed the question for his listeners: "Is it art or is it a load of old shite?" Indeed.

On mature reflection and after downing a few cold ones in honour of our newest famous artist, I've decided that there are at least 10 good reasons the beer crates qualify as that rarest of species, Great New Zealand Art.

(1) Great title. When artist Michael Parekowhai created an installation consisting of 10 guitars, he called it Ten Guitars. David Stewart calls his beer crates Hyperreal Tool Box for the Reinvention of a Transglobal Empire in a Parallel Universe. I think it means "Beam me up, Scotty".

(2) Because Dave may still get the last laugh. An enamel urinal sent to a 1917 art show in New York by French artist and comedian Marcel Duchamp went to auction in May. Duchamp didn't even make the urinal but claimed to have "found" it. Dave not only brewed his own beer, he made the crates and inlaid them with gorgeous and apparently meaningful letters in paua. The urinal sold for over a million dollars. You do the maths.

(3) Because, in winning the big prize, Dave beat out such established artists as Judy Darragh and Marcus Williams. More importantly, he beat out two Australians.

(4) Because the work apparently "annoyed" the judge, Zara Stanhope, of Melbourne's Heide Museum of Art. This is an excellent new criterion on which to award major prizes. New Zealand might not have produced many world-class artists, but we've got annoying people coming out our ears. If this method of evaluation catches on, Paul Holmes, Susan Wood and Michelle Boag will be picking up Pulitzers any day now.

(5) Because Dave's win annoyed the experts. One-man culture industry Hamish Keith was quoted in a Sunday paper questioning the judge's decision. Art should not be judged on feeling alone, he fumed. "It's a pity when art prizes don't do some good in the long run. They need to be taken more seriously." But it seems Dave also confused the experts. By Monday Hamish was on the radio claiming to be pro-beer crates after all and that he was nipping off to Hamilton to see them for himself.

(6) Even the silliest works of art can exert great influence. Or, to put it another way, Marcel Duchamp has a lot to answer for. British artist Tracey Emin created a stir in 1999 when she won the Turner Prize with a work entitled My Bed. The work consisted of her bed, plus grubby sheets, used knickers, condoms and bottles of vodka. During its exhibition, two Chinese students were detained after removing their clothes and jumping into the bed. Their actions were, they claimed, also a work of art. It was called Two Naked Men Jump into Tracey's Bed. We can only hope the beer crates are as inspirational. "Two Naked Men Drink Dave's Home Brew" doesn't have quite the same ring, but the Vodafone streakers might be up for it.

(7) Because the work generated at least one brilliant headline. "How crate thou home-brewed art".

(8) Because, unlike so many conceptual artists, Dave can clearly articulate the concept. The crates apparently represent "empirical imperialism and societal structure". I think that means "Beam me up, Scotty". According to the judge, Dave also "confronts histories and politics of labour, the nature of production and the operation of systems of classification and signification". I think I need a drink.

(9) The competition only cost $30 to enter and was open to "any person". That's nicely in keeping with our egalitarian self-image. Those snobs who don't want beer crates to win art awards should lobby the organisers to raise the price and entry qualifications to put them out of reach of the ordinary bloke. Well, it works for the health system.

(10) Because it got Helen "no comment" Clark talking about painting on television without stalking out of the studio. In fact, Clark was positively beer-crate friendly. "I'm afraid art isn't just a pretty picture on the wall," said the PM. She should know, considering where hers ended up.

So is it art? I think so. And some of the great artists and thinkers would probably agree.

"I am interested in ideas, not merely in visual products," declared Duchamp.

Said the great Imagist poet, William Carlos Williams: "No ideas but in things."

Or, as philosopher Homer Simpson once said: "Mmmmm, beer!"