Spotty to boot

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Castorp

#477224 Fri, 15 Feb 08 12:40 PM

Hi,

I didnt post anything for months to the forum. Now I have a question about a phrase:

the exhibition, spotty to boot, became appropriate and sincere

Spotty would be refered to spot but 'to boot', ¿in addition; also? Well, I have no idea about what is the meaning of this idiom.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Castorp

Castorp

Joined on Tue, Feb 27 2007

New Member (28)

Idioms

Philip

#477251 Fri, 15 Feb 08 02:37 PM

I, myself, would need more context in order to try to help you out. The expression "to boot" means something like "in addition".

Philip

Joined on Thu, Jun 23 2005

USA Pacific Northwest (Seattle)

Veteran Member (5,617)

If one will scoff at the study of language, how, save in terms of language, will one scoff? - Mario Pei

Expressions

Yankee

#477252 Fri, 15 Feb 08 02:44 PM

In AmE the word 'spotty' means 'bad in some parts' or 'not consistently good'. You're right -- the phrase 'to boot' means 'in addition/also'.

Did the previous sentence(s) mention some other negative aspects of the exhibition? Without further context, your sentence doesn't make much sense. I can only assume that other negative qualities of the exhibition had already been mentioned and that the writer added one more negative quality here (i.e. 'spotty').

Yankee

Joined on Sat, Apr 15 2006

Connecticut, USA

Senior Member (4,013)

Amy "You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." - Mark Twain

Negatives

Castorp

#479684 Thu, 21 Feb 08 09:11 AM

Excuse me, I couldn't connect to Internet until today.

The previous and following paragraphs no mention clearly negative qualities:

...is a four-part exhibition of artists that deploy strategies of collage, sculptural assemblage, sound and the Internet. The first two series reinvent Arte Povera, the Surrealist, Fluxus and the Dadaist ideas and concepts of the ready made, found object, fantasy, space, process, and human behavior. The final additions engage the social and the transformative aspects of recent audio and web technology. Owing much to their forebears —Marcel Duchamp, Mimmo Rotella, Robert Rauschenberg, Nam June Paik, George Maciunas, Laurie Anderson, among others— the exhibiting artists who are by no means prodigal offsprings, embrace plurality and difference in a new reality that in and of itself needs definition. It is a notable social and cultural shift, a phenomenon that denotes generational concerns, cycle, impetus and ideological transformation. Such shift is a psychic twist with a global seismic effect on the collective consciousness.
Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn and Los Angeles-based Mark Bradford exemplify “the formal and ideological power of juxtaposing found images to create everything from social and political commentaries to Surrealist fantasies and personal confessions.”
After climbing up the stairwells and reaching the top floor, an extraordinary sense of openness and monumentality began to set in, and the exhibition, spotty to boot, became appropriate and sincere. Sincerity is the new irony of the 21st century.

So maybe it just mean additionally.

Thanks!

Castorp

Irony, Negatives, Paragraphs

Feebs11

#479717 Thu, 21 Feb 08 10:50 AM

The extract from the review you have given talks about the background to the exhibitions. "spotty to boot" is more likely to refer to the quality of the actual exhibits and/or the lack of cohesion within the exhibition [some things are given more emphasis and exhibits than others], or even the way in which the exhibition is shown across several floors of the building.

Feebs11

Joined on Thu, Nov 23 2006

Senior Member (4,660)