Is Smashing a Gallery Window Art?

Well, yes, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t legal consequences. From today’s Guardian:

Does breaking a window count as art? Yes, murmured the 50 or so artniks who recently crowded into a former Edinburgh ambulance garage to view a film of sculptor Kevin Harman doing just that. No, insisted Kate Gray, director of the Collective Gallery in Cockburn Street, whose window it was. The courts are on Gray’s side.

For those of you thinking “free speech,” not so fast. Remember that although non-verbal expression may be protected as speech under US law, not all non-verbal expression is granted First Amendment protection. The non-verbal expression with a message (content) may still be regulated by laws so long as the laws are not targeting the content of the speech (or act), but rather serve an important societal goal (in this case keeping individuals from shattering or breaking windows on private property. If anyone has information on UK laws governing non-verbal expression, please let me know at sergio_sarmiento@clancco.com

You can also view a video of Harman shattering the gallery window here.