Skewed Reality

Another week, another episode of Bravo's Work of Art reality show. This week's challenge involved turning the artists loose on a warehouse full of discarded appliances and electronics, with the task of turning it into found object sculpture. (spoilers coming, but if you care about this show, you've probably already seen it) As one would expect, some of the contestants were more successful than others. (from what I remember, the majority of them work primarily in two dimensions) For the second week in a row, a conceptualist got the boot (and another came close) for producing work that seemed to make more sense to its creator than to any of the judges, even after an explanation was given. Once again Miles the printmaker (he managed to work some screen printing into his sculptural work) was declared the winner, getting another week of immunity.

No "reality" show can really be said to be real. Even pure documentaries involve editing and selecting of scenes. Competition shows set up artificial obstacles for the contestants, and that is what takes these shows away from reality. For example, in this show the contestants are mostly established (if not all financially independent) artists, given about 2 days to complete an assignment that most would never do on their own. That kind of thing happens when you're an art student, but if you're at the level where a solo museum show is a possibility, you are working in the mediums and subjects that you are most experienced in, and you take as much time as you need to finish an artwork. In the judges' critique following the exhibition, one contestant (the one who would later be exiled) was asked if the piece he just created was something he would include a retrospective exhibition of his work, and he wouldn't make that claim. I think that most artists would not put something on public display that they don't feel confident about, but the people on the show had no choice. And this concerned me- a disclaimer at the end credits that the judges consulted with the show producers and the network in making decisions about the art, which I interpret as the possibility of contestants being retained or removed from the show for reasons that have nothing to do with the art they produced.

The show wasn't all bad. For every scene of an artist exhibiting rude behavior toward another, there were a few scenes of contestants giving each other technical advice and assistance, despite being in direct competition with each other. I find this believable. Maybe we're mostly nice people, or maybe we're just showing off how much we know, but it rings true. And I like the critique portion toward the end of the show, where judges discuss a mix of successful and unsuccessful work with the artists- it's not super intensive, but it does provide the audience with some insight into the art process, something the typical television watcher has no clue about.