During the time I was working on the project exploring coloured media, I followed up a recommendation of a fellow student pointing to the TV Series ‘Work of Art’. This series is a reality TV show about a group of artists who compete for a price of 100.000 USD and a personal exhibition at an important museum for contemporary art.
The artists worked their way through several rounds, each with a different task to which they had to deliver a work of art in very short time, usually not longer than a day and a half. They presented their work to a jury of professionals from the contemporary art world, and in each round, one or two of them with the weakest piece had to leave the competition.
I have many objections against this TV format and the commercialization of artistic processes, but the series was really fascinating to watch. I found the tasks that were set very inspiring and loved to see the artworks. It was also very interesting to listen to the critical judgements of professionals. I think this has improved my understanding for contemporary art.
The series may not have directly traceable influence on my work for this course, because I don’t intend to work on the same tasks, but I think that it has opened my mind a bit more for contemporary art, and it has also strengthened my confidence to follow intuition and gut feeling while working on a piece of art. A majour learning point for me from the critics was to realize the importance of being personally and emotionally involved with one’s artwork.
In case you’re interested, the episodes can be watched on Youtube. There is also a website for the series with photos and some background.
References
Youtube videos (First season, Episodes 1 to 10, each in 4 parts)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEbPMZh_rHs
Work of Art Website (don’t look at the website before watching the series because they present the winner and this takes out all the suspense!)
http://www.bravotv.com/work-of-art/season-1