Selling Out

My thoughts on the most recent episode of Bravo's Work of Art, spoilers included.

The challenge this week was a little different. Artists were paired up (they did the choosing), and were given just 5 hours to shop for and create works of art that could be sold on the street (specifically vendor stalls in a park) to people passing by. The one restriction- they would have to sell a product- no performance art allowed. The same work would hang in the gallery show later that night, so the art would have to be successful in both locations. The bonus- the pair which totaled the highest sales would split $30,000 and be immune from elimination after the gallery show. Previous winner Sara J was given first pick and selected Young. Very logical, since he's won all or part of almost every cash prize so far. After that it was up to remaining contestants, and Kymia grabbed Dusty, mostly to make sure she wasn't stuck with Lola. That left Lola and Sarah K as the third pair.

The challenge did point out that there can be a difference in art made specifically for quick sale, as opposed to a focus on juror/critic response. In the latter case a sale is generally desirable, but it's not necessary for the piece to be successful. On the other hand, ribbons and glowing reviews don't pay the bills. And up until about a century ago, art was thought up primarily as a job, using learned skills to turn out products in exchange for money. The experience of modernism helped change that- artists creating new work that was sometimes years or decades ahead of finding paying customers. The incredibly expanded number of exhibitions spaces and modern economics also played a role. Art made for quick sale is generally designed to appeal to a wide variety of people (including those with no knowledge of higher art), while art aimed at the critics only has to appeal to them, and as we've seen on this show, the critics' choices can baffle the tv audience. For this challenge, the contestants concentrated on the money making part, since winning the street battle would bring in cash and guarantee passage to the following week.

With such a short time to prepare, some of the contestants fell back on previous experiences. Sara J had experience making small ink and watercolor drawings and selling them on the street, and started cranking them out. Many of the others had experience making t-shirts for street sales, and got started printing on clothing. Kymia decided to do something more conceptual, selling small pieces of paper with her signature in exchange for $5 and a signature on a similar paper from the purchaser. Lola's quickly decides to take a nude photograph of herself and sell that. (oh Sucklord, you were sent home just a little too soon) She added some text across the image, sharing secrets about herself.

Very quickly they were out to the park to begin selling. Simon eventually showed up, but at this point everyone was committed to their idea so he couldn't do much meddling. Some of the ideas evolved. Sara started doing inexpensive portraits of passers-by, Lola would add unique secrets to her images for an extra fee. (some of these could start approaching performance, but no one was called on it) After the park, each got one more hour to prepare something for the gallery show, then they had that.

After the show they started with the cash tally. The winning pair was Sara J and Young, but it was her, not him, that drove the sales- she moved over $300 worth of her drawings and portraits. Still Young got to be part of another cash prize and the two were immune from possible elimination at the crits. Of the remaining four artists, the judges liked Kymia and Lola's work the best. Kymia's gallery display was grids made up of her signature cards and those from the customers. Not very visually exciting, but they appreciated it on a conceptual level. Not surprisingly, the male judges and Simon couldn't find enough nice things to say about Lola's photo piece. The photo showed her fully nude, standing and facing the camera. The show gave us many long looks at it, making this probably the most frontal nudity every seen on basic cable. Many of the secrets were obvious to anyone who has ever watched this show ("I am moody and sometimes mean", "I am envious of the success of others", "I say sorry when I don't mean it"), along with a few more personal things. The judges kept talking about how it daring and exciting it was, to reveal so much about herself. Gotta disagree here. First of all, it's nothing new- artists have been using their own nude bodies in photograph based art for several decades. And Lola is young enough to be part of the original sexting generation; even if she never had occasion to send nude photos of herself out over her cell phone, she likely has friends who have. As for the secrets, most teens and young adults have far more embarrassing stuff on their Facebook pages. The photo itself wasn't particularly exciting, but then again, just before the episode was broadcast I had spent 2 hours at a life drawing session, staring at a real live nude woman, one who seems to be a much nicer person than Lola.

That left Dusty and Sarah K. Dusty came up with an image- a map of the continental United States with a black shape in the center- a surveillance camera. At least that's what he said it was. None of the judges could figure it out. (toner cartridge and burrito were some guesses) He printed this on t-shirts and made a freestanding sign. Besides having no idea what the sign was about originally, the judges criticized him for falling back on something similar to a previous project (U.S. map with image in the center), though they had no problem with Lola combining image and text for like the 4th time in row, something that they brought up as an issue just last week. (apparently nudity will buy you some good will) Either way, it was a dull image and it would be hard to argue that it didn't deserve to be in the bottom group. Joining him there was Sarah K, who made construction paper Indian style headdresses, and stenciled stylized gender specific parts on t-shirts. The judges saw the former as grade school crafts and the latter as juvenile doodling. Perhaps because he's been more successful in some of the challenges, they kept Dusty and sent Sarah home.

Back to the idea of selling. I am part of the Outlaw Printmakers, a group that has had a wide approach to marketing. Members have sold plenty of art at the high end of the market, hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a single print. However many have also participated in low cost events, such as the series of "Prints Gone Wild" sales where everything is priced at under $50, and much is even less. (the image at the top is a detail from my Employee print, a depiction of fellow Outlaw Sean Star Wars, who is a regular at such sales) I was never a part of any of those events, but I do have a line of small inexpensive prints that sell in the range of $8 to $20, which I have sold out of print bins, galleries and holiday related sales. I don't see this as a negative. As long as you are making art that is of comparable quality to what you place on a museum wall, I don't think any artistic sins have been committed. Just because the work is selling to the public at large doesn't necessarily mean that you're selling out.