Neural Circuits by N Sawhney � the Britten Sinfonia with Joanna Macgregor their new MD � followed by Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten by A Part. The Circuits are the first post 9-11 �serious� piece that I have heard although I know a John Adams piece has been performed. This one has the voice of Bush across the music in places � I suppose you could call this playing with fire. Made me think that with the decade someone will do a music theatre on the current diplomatic drama.

Today then is a day for in your face reality art. This covers a piece by AA Bronson called Felix June 5th 1994. It is portrait of a gaunt figure propped up on a pillow in a bed. It is not clear that this is a dead body � but you find that out one way or another. Bronson, Felix and another artist Jorge Sontal were part of an art collective formed in 1969 called the General Idea. Felix is the second of the three to die of AIDS and so I suppose the collective has become so particular it is no longer general at all. The photograph is constructed to bring to mind the richly decorated stylised Klimt portraits � it is also very large � the scale of a Pollock work say. There is nothing else in the gallery space.

Some people might say that the subject matter rendered the artwork inappropriate or invalid and I am certainly one of those. To assess it though, I think you just have to know more about the General Idea � the piece is part of the execution of that idea � probably the final word on the idea. So the work is almost like an advert for the General Idea � and indeed it does bring to mind the notorious Benetton advert. There is also the tradition from the Renaissance and probably from classical times that personal representation is a kind of triumph over death.

Art and the Body. In 1962 Nam June Paik dipped his head in paint and dragged it across a roll of Olivetti typing paper. Some would claim there was a musical accompaniment � Composition No 10 of 1960 by Lamont Young. But if you read the score you will see that NJK was actually executing the composition. By any standards this is smart stuff � up until then art works were singular � only one Mona Lisa. LmY crosses the boundary and subsumes graphic art under music where you have many instances of a single work. Art fights back by christening this instance of the work �Zen for the Head� So general and particular again.

Upstairs from the Felix work is Pay Dirt by Joe Scanlon born 1960. It is an installation which starts with a pile of dirt composting � including detritus from Scanlon�s life as part of the mix. This is sifted and put into bags which are for sale so that you can put it on your garden if you wish. On the walls is documentation about the project including a manifesto which asks why artists shouldn�t make a decent living from art. The installation appears to endorse Warhol and Hirst and an economic model of art. The more original your art the more you will stand out from competitor artists and the more you will earn and so the more valuable your work will appear to be.

But it is also a model in terms of detritus turning into something useful � and in fact the imagery on the bags is drawn from representations of the Green Man in Birmingham � so its an endorsement of neo-paganism too. Its also a reference to Birmingam which grew rich by being good at designing and making although Scanlon comes from NYC and this is one of a series of product generating works. Another includes the production of bottles of artificial tears.

Its obviously still on the agenda of art and the body derived from NJP Lmy and the General Idea. It is a demonstration that art tends to mean simultaneously on many levels.