Anyone else watching this? It’s basically PROJECT RUNWAY except that they’re artists doing art instead of fashion designers. An interesting premise, but most of the contestants are way too full of themselves, and the judges seem very shallow.
I stumbled on to it after Top Chef a couple of weeks back, and I immediately added it to my TIVO selections. Very interesting. I agree that many of the contestants are self-absorbed, and most of the rest are just plain annoying. I loved it when that older California woman got eliminated, she was awful, and her art was just what she felt like doing, regardless of the task.
The hot chick with the big boobs is incredibly self absorbed, but as this week showed, she can produce quality art.
The young black guy (Abdi?) really gets the concept and can produce some nice results, but might be a little too “commercial” to win the whole thing.
The incredibly agnsty kid from Minneapolis is clearly the best artist of the bunch, but I agree with one of the other contestants that he is playing up his “issues” for all that he can.
Oh, the performance artist last week was just embarrasingly awful.
I like this show.
I’m about half convinced she deliberately self-destructed. She talked about her age and ability a lot. I got the feeling she was embarrassed that the kids were showing her up. I think she may have wanted to go home on a commercial challenge, with the ability to claim the show wasn’t looking for a real artist, rather than clearly losing on the merits of her work. At least that’s what I want to think. Because otherwise I can’t fathom why anyone would write the name of a book backwards on a book cover.
I stumbled on some sort of marathon over the holiday weekend. I had never heard of it, but like it about as much as the most recent seasons of Project Runway and Top Chef.
Just watched my first episode this week. I really enjoyed seeing the different people’s creative process. That painting that guy did of his girlfriend was so good.
I hated all the judges. The only basis they had for judging the art was “Will liking this make me look smart and cool?” They liked stuff they could interact with regardless of quality. The “sculpture” of the wooden signs they loved so much was just stupid. The three panel self portrait was very well done and they hated it cause it was about the artist and not them.
Worst judge’s moment (IMHO) was when the judge said, “But is it an LP record or a hubcap, I can’t tell.” Well, of course not, you moron, that’s the whole point. She later criticized some other artist because there was ambiguity in the interpretation. I can imagine her scolding Shakespeare because she isn’t sure whether Hamlet is mad or not. Brrrrrr.
I agree that the Minneapolis kid (Miles?) seems the best artist, but his OCD (whether real or feigned) is just annoying. ON t’other hand, maybe they’re smarter than we are. Maybe they’ve learned that being a drama queen is the way to get more coverage, have the TV cameras on you more often, get more air time.
Miles is such a douche. His “art” so far has consisted of not much more than performance pieces of him sleeping, or empty spaces. Erik was right to call him on his angsty-tortured-artist act. I thought both sculptures were piles of shit, but if the Blue Team lost because it was poorly constructed then Miles should have gone home.
I really want to see that smug smile slapped off his half-awake face.
Qualities which are not unknown in other reality show competitions.
I’ve been enjoying the show. There really hasn’t been much great art made from it, but considering the limited time they have to make all their work, I’m still somewhat impressed. The best episode in my opinion was the shock art episode. Not because much good art came out of it, but because it was funny to see so many art world cliches.
Actually, it looks like the judges all preferred the blue team’s piece. In Jerry Saltz’s blog, he says that the judging was based in part on how the team worked together. So really all Erik had to do was stay quiet, or at the very least not trash the piece and his teammates in front of the judges, and his team would have won and he wouldn’t have been kicked off.
“Miles, the public art was your vision and design. You controlled the entire project and didn’t take anyone else’s advice. Eric, go home.”
I think these judges would award Miles first place for taking a shit on their box lunch.
You have to admit though that Erik was a total jerk and has been getting worse and worse each week. I agree with Miles that Eric was very insecure and felt he had to tear down other people to distract from his failings. He was very good at undermining others’ ideas and behavior, but oblivious to his own.
Overall I have enjoyed the show and have no idea how an artist can just come up with an idea in a few moments and execute it in less than a day. I think it’s pretty amazing. I liked the big seat best and I thought that the fact that it faced the absent Twin Towers was awesome even i it wasn’t intentional. The other structure left me yawning. The little pieces were just wierd and I think they were more of a health hazard that the seat.
Anyway, glad Erik went home. I’m predicting Miles, black dude, or the photographer will win.
T hat was Eric’s point of view, of course; but the fact is that he didn’t work with the team. Regardless of whose idea and whose point, he needed to work with them rather than get all angry and lash out. Working in a team, there are ways to get your ideas across that are different from just insulting the other team members. I bet he never watched another reality/elimination show, or he’d have known that throwing a hissy fit gets you lots of TV coverage but loses in the competition.
Even though I agree with his assessment of Miles, that doesn’t mean that he should shout it out instead of working on the team. And the best line was that he would have thought that it was a conspiracy where they were plotting to kick him off, except that they weren’t smart enough for that.
I do agree that the random tin looked ridiculous (not to say dangerous!).
I go with John Stewart: Reality shows where contestants demonstrate some sort of ability or skill are the best kind. Which this one is.
Every reality show needs someone like Miles. He has produced some great stuff so far - although he’s in a bit of a rut right now. He just does the craziest stuff- like reading all of Frankenstein, napping at completely inappropriate times…I love him.
And, unrelated, anyone else feel really uncomfortable watching the last episode? Erik was unnecessarily angsty throughout the whole thing and I definitely understood Peregrine’s concerns about his yelling at her. It felt like a scary situation.
And how will it look in 3 months? It’s unclear to me how either of these pieces will weather.
I don’t have a lot of experience with public art that you’re supposed to sit/climb/be on so I don’t think that would be my inclination if I happened upon the red team’s piece. Either piece, really. But the blue team’s peice to me said “step right up . get your splinters and tetanus.”
I didn’t understand the reasoning behind the colors for the largest part of the red team’s piece. Also, did any of you feel like that piece would have been more successful if the bottom edge had been covered by the gravel? I realize it’s a small detail, but for some reason it really jumped out at me.
I’ve been fairly sure from the beginning that we’re being set up for a Miles win. Early on I decided my own first choice would be Abdi. The week before public art I was starting to think I might shift my support to Nicole, and I still think she’s a strong contender, but my own preference is for Abdi’s work and point of view.
Last night was a major surprise. I thought Ryan was one of the stronger artists.
I thought that weird tree and pipe cleaner disaster would send Jaclyn home. The judges seemed to hate that tree more than anything. The edit monkeys make it hard to know wtf is going on. It seemed like Miles was in trouble and then the judges loved his geometric thing. I still didn’t see any connection to his childhood.
Next week, more nekkid people to draw. Peregrine’s bare butt isn’t something I particularly want to imagine.
Miles is totally skating by on the “makes good drama” credit, and I think Jaclyn is too.
Ryan, on the other hand, has mostly been painting uninteresting self-portraits and going in directions that were far too literal. Jaclyn’s piece wasn’t great, but she at least had a story besides “drawing like I did when I was a kid” and “my relationship with my mother is strained.” Neither of them executed their stories/themes well, but she went in a more interesting direction.
Abdi made me sad. I understand where he was coming from. I still have a drawing of my cat done by the unofficially designated artist-girl from my 5th/6th grade class. But he didn’t do enough to show how being that kid made him feel valued, or how it influenced his art today.
I wonder how the judges feel after seeing this show and now knowing Miles passed even though his work was a recreation of something he did 9 months ago and he added color only because Simone said to.
I hate to say it, but I’m starting to wonder what happened to Jaclyn as a child. She claims to be totally private but takes her clothes off for show for any reason. She had a totally screwed up childhood (at least Peregrine has an excuse). I asked Mrs. Cad if she though Jaclyn was molested as a child and looking at the two trees (think legs) and the wall divided between them which the judges couldn’t figure out … The question for me is are the memories repressed or not?
I hate it too but I’m starting to think there’s definitely something she’s possibly repressing about potential sexual abuse either as a child or even ongoing in her life. That hint comes out in everything she’s done on the show.
So far my favorite episode was the book cover episode. I thought that was the one you could most relate to and understand. Some of the other episodes I’m not sure I get, particularly as a person with no art background at all.
I think this is the show I almost auditioned for last summer, except the Boston audition dates were bogus/couldn’t be verified. I just added it to TiVo.
I just watched last week’s ep. I’m glad that the editors are at least showing that Miles is full of shit, even if the judges aren’t calling him out on it. I agree that he was safe this week because he provides drama for the show.
I think I’m rooting for Abdi at this point. Or the fat guy. None of the others impress me much.