Work of Art Episode 2: Recap and Tweet Digest!
This week on Work of Art, it’s the Garbage Project! Our artists have to make a sculpture … out of toss-offs. Wait, hasn’t this been done before? The same has been done on Project Runway and not to mention by John Chamberlain and countless others, but thankfully not Top Chef.
Note: See episode 1 recap here.
THE CHALLENGE: This week on Work of Art, it’s the Garbage Project!
Our artists have to make a sculpture … out of toss-offs. Wait, hasn’t this been done before? The same has been done on Project Runway and not to mention by sculptor John Chamberlain and countless others, but thankfully not Top Chef.
From the moment Simon de Pury opened a garage door onto an enormous warehouse space stuffed with discarded appliances, I thought I could hear a massive groan from the collective art world. It’s a total cliché. And even worse, a cliché that the Whitney Biennale did first! #ohshit! Our contestants work with found object multimedia artist Jon Kessler, who opines that there is “something romantic about a found object” and advises everyone to “not get electrocuted.” Trong is totally good with this; being a robot he cannot get electrocuted.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS: studio time commences. Jaclyn is making an aquarium. Trong sez she’s maybe referring to “Jeff Koons, not sure.” Whoa, will our audience know that name now that it’s been said twice!? Ryan starts helping Jaclyn with the aquarium but warns her not to “touch the caulk too much.” It doesn’t sound like that much of a come on. Mark is making a hot golden mess out of a TV, turning it into a religious Mexican death altarpiece. TV = the new religion, got it?
Erik is a bro and “likes everything, dude.” Miles is looking best (again) with both his charming good looks (as the Twitter crowd noticed) and his work, which was inspired by his decision to go to sleep in the appliance warehouse. He makes a representation of an artist’s sleep, screening printing a microchip pattern on sacking and casting assholes out of concrete … something about stress and tension. We hear that Erik had a motorcycle accident and his problems with the right side of his brain, leading to lost trains of thought.
THE GALLERY SHOWING: Mark has actually come out okay! I kind of dig his sloppy golden idol. Miles decides to sleep on top of his work, making it come alive in a way that Erik deems “crying for attention.” Yeah but isn’t all performance crying for attention? In an interesting piece, Peregrine made two static-y TVs facing eachother into a “widow having a conversation with herself.” Trong, however, seems to have put his conceptual foot in his conceptual mouth. His blank white TVs having a conversation with eachother seems a little dry but not that bad, that is, until the judges come knockin’. The Saltzmaster barely censors himself, calling the piece “self-referentiality out the wing wong.” Miles fails to hold himself back and becomes judge-for-a-minute, saying Trong’s stuff is “distractingly boring.” He’s easily distracted though, remember.
Saltz calls out Jaime Lynn as being merely a stage-setter and “not making art.” Judith overexplains her Kandinsky abstraction made of wire, but the judges go soft. Bill Powers steps up and sez that Judith didn’t know what her intention was behind the piece, but hey, we like listening to her talk and seeing the camera montage her blatherings.
Once again the judges dig Miles! They all like the performative aspect of him sleeping on his sculpture and Jerry sez he got to know a little more about the artist. Aww. Jon Kessler does, however, note that “two anuses is overkill,” which we all know is totally true. One is plenty. Too bad the show has more.
THE SCORECARD: Miles wins! For the second time! Which is interesting in part because he’s far and away one of the better contestants on the show, but he better not win three in a row. That would just be weird. Plus did anyone else notice that he repeated a lot of materials and techniques from last time? The plastic sheet, the screenprinting, the wood. It’s a very singular aesthetic, but then contemporary art doesn’t necessarily look for variety. Oh well. Too many artists used TVs, that was dumb. Trong ends up losing, which I think is unfair given the presence of exceedingly worse crappy sculptures. His TVs were boring, not bad, and he certainly could have done better. Looking forward to the next installment, where more artists flirt with each other, Bill Powers is a creep and Jerry Saltz is guaranteed to say something colorful! [canned applause]
This episode was markedly less developed for me than the first. It was still entertaining, but had very little depth and made little effort to probe the artists’ works until the final (10 minute) judging. I’m not sure why, but it just didn’t come out this time. None of the work was great, not that it has been yet, and very little art struggles of interest have come up. Why not challenge everyone to resolve the struggle to represent three dimensions on a two dimensional canvas in a new way!? Seriously guys, great art is not made in these conditions.
ON TWITTER
Once again, SDP wins the show:
@abstanfield: Simon de Pury is great! He’s like an alien coming in to greet the invaders. Comic relief #workofart
On needing better guest stars:
@midairhighfive: Ok, Bravo. Third mention in two shows of Jeff Koons. Dude better make a guest appearance at the end of yr show. #workofart
Fetishizing the artist:
@manbartlett: there are some creepy miles lovers out there #workofart
Continuing the Art-O-Lympics!
@MAM_Chelsea: I hope next season there’ll be a Models of the Runway-esque spinoff of the art preparators who have to install the gallery show #workofart
On the futility of “winning” an art game-show:
@artfagcity: @andrearosen in this show you can win. The work’s bad enough that that’s possible. #workofart
Oh … China Chow:
@kasten: Can’t argue. RT: @Glasstire: China Chow, bless her heart, has as much personality as a bucket of gesso. http://ow.ly/1ZCxe #workofart
@LazyLima: China Chow is a closet Black girl. Each time she’s on screen she’s got new hair! #workofart
Don’t do it!
@thejohnhogan: I was thinking of starting a blog about #workofart but then I realized suicide is never the answer.
And …
@MSLisaChang: 1st and last time watching #workofart— these people have parents who had hope for them at one point.
@clubsilence: Wait. People are watching tv when it’s actually broadcast? That still happens? #workofart #drones
