THE CAT STREET GALLERY HONG KONG

Jonathan Thomson's new artwork "BETTER THAN SEX" is currently showing at The Cat Street Gallery in Hong Kong as part of the WONDERWORKS exhibition. The exhibition continues until 3 June 2013.

"BETTER THAN SEX" is an important statement about value in general and value in art in particular. For years philosophers have grappled with questions about good and bad, right and wrong and how we might decide the relative merits of different things.

Sex is a universal yardstick. We all know what it is and what we think about it. So when we see the statement "BETTER THAN SEX", our immediate response is to ask ourselves "What is?" and to compare whatever we might be thinking of, anything and everything to one thing we know with absolute certainty to be good. This may be as incontrovertible as "I think therefore I am".

This statement gives us a baseline on which to make our other decisions about different artworks and other experiences. The perception of goodness or beauty is cognitive. Aesthetic pleasure has to do with the intellect, even if it does so through the mediation of the senses. Pleasure is the root of all critical appreciation of art.

As a bold statement in brilliant white neon, this artwork makes its point as forcefully as possible. This work is available in an Edition of 10 + 1 AP. For price and availability, please contact the gallery. It is accompanied by a framed facsimile of excerpts from GE Moore's influential "Principia Ethica" which provides a historical context for this contemporary re-statement of his main conclusions.