Art from a martian's perspective in London

The columnist Joana Pitman comments on 'The Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art', an exhibtion at the Barbican in London until May 18th. "The premise of this extravaganza is as follows: Martians have arrived on Earth to find earthlings obsessed with this thing called 'art'. They study the phenomenon and remove a number of objects which they take back to Mars and arrange in a museum for the education and enjoyment of Martians. ... Is it all worth it ? For a start they could have got hold of some better conceptual art. I would have liked to see what the Martians made of Tracey Emin's bed or Sarah Lucas's fried eggs and kebab. But perhaps they're giving other artists' egos a spot in the sun for a change. Perhaps they have succeeded in making foreign what had seemed familiar, in making us think afresh about this thing called conceptual art. It's good for a laugh as long as you don't get too caught up in the intellectual theorising behind it ... ."

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