QUEEN OF ART

I have had the live stream of the Queen's lying-in-state at the Palace of Westminster in the background on and off the TV for the past few days.

A combination of dappled early autumn sunlight, Elgar's 1st and 2nd Symphony playing in the background and the overall visual optics of the tradition has led me to the conclusion that it may be the best installation art I've ever seen. Damien Hirst's shark preserved in its formaldehyde glass coffin never stood a chance up against her Majesty's pall draped in the royal standard although I will say that the title for that famous piece of his, 'The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living,' could well be attributed to the British public's long held hope that Queen Elizabeth was perhaps immortal in some ways, immune to death. Until she finally at the impressive age of 96 proved otherwise.

This seemingly antiquated ritual, originally inspired by William Gladstone's lying-in-state in the same Westminster Palace in 1898, where collective memory and emotion unify in such potent fashion, is something quite rare in our attention deficit age where most cultural events are so obviously disposable.

Watching so many people of all backgrounds (some of whom have queued for up to fifteen hours) proves that the sneering critics who deride them for their honouring the late monarch clearly haven't understood the symbolism of what the queen represented in a modern world that is fast succumbing to increasing chaos.

Civility, kindness and pragmatic diplomacy are rare traits these days and in the passing of Queen Elizabeth II I fear it will become rarer still.

Still, in this ceremonial procession of respect by the British public, we see the desire for some honouring of those values to remain intact. And regardless of those who regard the royal family as surplus to requirements in the modern progressive age, they will find it hard to deny many people's appetite for unpompous civility in our brutalised age.

The ancient Greeks would get it. The Guardian won’t.