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From: Justyn Persson Category: Art Date: 30 January 2010 Time: 09:26 AM Review: The short answer is that for many it died being throttled by the combined hands of the selfish, unfortunately the eighties were the last golden period for many such institutions and the people who benifited most were those who realized there was no profit in sticking with the collective triumph of such "institutions". (curiously these ex-employee's have been crying their laments most vociferously) Arriving at the ICA as an onlooker or as a participant in the creative output was a thrill, the ICA represented the constitutional acceptance of the bohemian, it was like an opportunity for struggling edgy little scumbags to get some exposure in a solid, quasi-royal institution, it was the last remnant of that long lost idea of the "kind authority", the benevolent conservatives, like the one's before David Porpious-Face, the PR savvy culture we now accept as normal. The ones who left the ICA then, (MM) sniffed the wind of change and got fat junkits under their career belts leaving the place wide open to the ensuing abuse afforded any remnant of a bygone day. As an assett strip-club it tried attracting a pubescent celebrity influenced but vacuous tribe literally wiping out any hopes of cerebral liberal cross section. Curiosly Bank, who are mentioned in this column would have been the very target for ICA back before Gallery PooPoo, indicative of the shift it's doubtful Bank would be flattered in their feral fury but ICA did some off-site things with Visual Theatre that in retrospect weren't so very different from Bank's ethos. The ICA used to hang a lot more relevance on combining the arts, theatre, exhibitions and discussions and cinema made it a real hothouse but it wasn't satisfied with being an arbiter of culture, it wished to BE culture and bought into a lot more multi-cultural as well as corporate ground. Big mistake, multi-culturalism needs to remain unhomogenized to be recognized and corporations will eat the ass of anything it see's as fair game. The death of the ICA signifies the continuation of Governments disinterest in anarchic or formative cultures, ie anything that challenges the status quo. And reflects the failure by consecutive Governance without the testicles to tax people like Murdoch (because we'll frighten them away) without tax income you rely on the rich to choose your art - or worse The Ignorant, The place has been toppled by a thousand pricks