Bravo’s Work of Art Doesn’t work for Anyone

The Cast of Bravo's Work of Art

At some point last winter my mother sent me a link to the BravoTV casting website. She suggested that I audition for Sarah Jessica Parker’s new show “Work of Art”.  In my post-college waitressing haze I decided that it seemed like and interesting opportunity.  I scrambled to get my portfolio together. As a performance artist who originally intended to be a marine biologist, much of my early work went undocumented. I awoke on the morning of the audition, portfolio still not exported as a PDF from InDesign, frustrated at my inability to complete and print the portfolio in time to drive from Northampton, Ma to NYC. ADHD be cursed! I went for a bike ride.

The first episode aired on June 9th and I missed it as well. My frustrations at my lack of professional progress came to a head after the death of my grandfathers in January. He was the whole reason I stayed in Massachusetts… him and universal healthcare. By June 1st I sold most of my possessions and moved down here by the seat of my pants. Jobless, friendless and TV-less I watched the first episode of Work of Art online and was relieved that my slacker-hood had saved me the pain of possibly making it onto the show.

Critics across the board have panned the show and it’s attempt to subjugate the aspirations of high art to the format of what may be the lowest of the low-art, reality TV. Mind you, I say this not as an art snob but as a consumer, nay, a lover of both the high and low. Ross Bleckner of The Daily Beast likened the experience of watching the show to being back in high school and I am inclined to agree. Daniel Fienberg of The Fein Print accused it of being “more like a pop art prank than like a search for a real artist.” The program’s sister shows, Top Chef and Project Runway (now on LifeTime) have enjoyed success; they too often display the difficulties of reducing the creative process to a time constrained competition format.

In an interview for NYFA.org Nao Bustamante described her experience with the show and her views on the limits of the format. She likened the judging process to her experiences showing animals at the state fair and described the shared studio experience as simply “awful”.  Although she did not dig her teeth into and rip the show a new art hole she did note that over the course of filming the opinions of the artists often directly countered the decisions of the judges. I’m not sure anyone could successfully argue against the total subjectivity of art. I believe that this program, noble intentions aside, has done little to bring art into the realm of the laymen and has only served to further bolster the notion of art as a competitive elitist field in which the success of it’s aspirants is at the merciless whim of a few people with deep pockets and small ideas.

Written by Emily Russell for Ico Gallery

Advertisement