Contemporary art goes down the gurgler

"I Give You All My Money" by Scottish Artist Cathy Wilkes

A naked mannequin draped in horsehoes sitting on a toilet is one of several art works nominated for Britain's Turner Prize this year. Scotland-based Cathy Wilkes, who has also positioned a mannequin with her head in a bird cage in the work, is one of four artists nominated for contemporary art's most prestigious prize at London's Tate Britain museum. Brisbane Times

Photos: the nominees

Also on display are old porridge bowls and a clip from The Simpsons cartoon. There is sculpture, installations and film – but no figurative painting. What would the great Joseph Mallord William Turner (for whom the prize is named) have thought? Very little one would imagine; he's likely to be furiously turning in his grave. The Turner Prize has established a reputation for pushing the boundaries and usually manages to spawn outrage and debate on what constitutes art. The questionable merits of this year's nominees beg a larger question: is this the end of Western Art?

Over the last 20 to 30 years, western modern art has become increasingly obscure and inaccessible. It has seemed to deliberately alienate the general public and to become increasingly elitist. Only an exclusive circle of dilettantes pretend to understand what the contemporary art scene is all about and it has become all but irrelevant to the average person.

After the second world war, the old order having ground itself into the ground due to the ravages of two world wars, the epicentre of the 'art scene' moved from Paris to New York. Abstract Expressionism established itself as the new cutting edge with artists like Pollock, Rothko and De Kooning the new messiahs. This change coincided with the establishment of America as the new super power.

Due to the current economic crisis, America now stands to fall off the pedestal as a super power. Just as China seems set to assume the mantle as the new super power, an explosion in creative energy has come from the Chinese contemporary arts after years of isolation. The centre of creative innovation is shifting inexorably eastwards.

Works like Wilkes "I Give You All My Money" can hardly even claim to be original; Marcel Duchamp exhibited a toilet bowl (Fountain) as early as 1917. A naked mannequin on a toilet is a fitting death knell for western contemporary art.