Did you see last night's
"Work of Art"? The contestants were confronted with a warehouse full of discarded electronics, and then told to make it into art. Oh, I thought I'd die laughing. The typical response to the challenge:
You might've noticed that many of the artists work 2D, not 3D. They're photographers, realist painters, silkscreen printers. Most have little or no assemblage experience, and it really showed.
Designated Hotness actually said, "Omigod, I don't know what I'm doing."
Hotness wanted to make a tank to fill with water and an empty TV. Except she had
no clue whatsoever about adhesives. (Not even how to get a clump of adhesive out of her hair.) So she whines for help, and
Starvingartist takes time away from his piece to help her make hers. Lots of caulk jokes follow.
The only "mixed-media artist," the
Gray Panther, couldn't pull her piece together either.
She chose lots of cables, rather than TV monitors like many others had; not following the pack, but not blazing a trail either.
Hilary Swank's Double, on the other hand, was KILLIN' the challenge!
HSD created sort of an archaelogical/geological chasm inside an old-style TV turned on its side. And
Cartoony Boy went back to his roots as a child video game addict for this piece.
The joystick plugs into the statue's navel like an umbilical cord. And don't you love how it somehow
doesn't tip over? Even more awesome, because he had to rework the design from two kids to one, and bulk up the frame with paper and painter's tape under the plaster strips.
But it was
Tortured Artist who took the win.
The unfamiliar environment has his OCD working overtime -- can't get any rest. So he silkscreened and created a large pillow, which he placed on top of a makeshift bed. (Don't even ask about the pillows on each side.) The idea was to create the world's least restful spot to sleep. The clincher:
Tortured "activated" his piece by shutting out the sensory overload:
He took a nap on the bed during the gallery showing.
And guess who went home?
The Hipster. Don't cry for him: his career is already so established that many of the contestants had heard of him before they met him. This was all about exposure for him. So I'm sure he and too-cool-for-the-room haircut will be just fine.
Most of the other artists went home without comment, which must've saved some of them last night. Sometimes in these competitions, it's enough to stay just above the worst contestant. What did you think?
