Not the Simile

In today's Guardian Weekend, Antony Gormley gives us the most appallingly ill-judged simile. He is one of a batch of artists reflecting on the Turner Prize, and the act of winning it:

"Any of us could have won," Antony Gormley says of the artists shortlisted in 1994. "All of us have made important contributions to contemporary art." He dislikes the "gladiatorial" way in which artists are pitted one against another, and feels "embarrassed and guilty to have won - it's like being a Holocaust survivor. In the moment of winning there is a sense the others have been diminished. I know artists who've been seriously knocked off their perches through disappointment."

I will write more on this later, but for now I urge you to ponder the issue of Gormley's tasteless, and wholly inaccurate, use of simile - 'it's like being a Holocaust survivor' - and how consequently the rest of the phrases then line up ethically: 'In the moment of winning'; 'I know artists who've been seriously knocked off their perches through disappointment'. I repeat here to emphasise how his comparison forces me to override any honesty and/or credibility he may have had. See here for more.