Art is a reflection of civilisation. How apt then, that the last time I wandered beside the Arts Centre in Victoria there were ‘artists’ dressed up as sheep pretending to eat the lawn – baa-ing at passersby who shrugged off the experience as ‘Victoria’.

Our concept of ‘art’ has been going wrong for a while, but I first noticed its decline in earnest when our art teacher – a failed artist herself – asked us to write a two-page essay on the genius of a blank canvas presented as ground-breaking modern art.

In other words, doing nothing has become the height of talent with...