Don't Try this at Home, Jackass!

In 2001, Martin Creed’s installation, “The Lights Going On and Off,” won 20,000 pounds and Britain’s Turner Prize. Critics of the project were known to comment that “it’s just a bunch of lights going on and off in an empty room,” while advocates of the decision said the exact same thing (perhaps with a different inflection). Whatever philosophical ruminations or evocations can come from this sort of presentation, the simple fact of the matter when viewing this in a museum is that “these are some lights