Bravo’s reality show about art is getting hammered from both sides of the cultural divide. The Los Angeles Times’s David Ng complains that not one of the contestants remarked upon the Audi sponsorship embedded in their latest challenge. Indeed, as Brent Bozell of the conservative Patriot Post somewhat unintentionally points out when he complains about the sexual nature of all the contestant’s attempts at creating shock art, Contemporary artists think sex–the most commonplace allusion in our porn-saturated media–is somehow shocking but they can’t recognize the overwhelming nature of corporate sponsorship in their lives and work. It’s much safer to “confront” prudishness than it is to upset the sponsors:
This isn’t the only work of “art” with that theme. There’s the man who titles his painting “My Tranny Porno Fantasy.” He explains what he’s going to paint: “I have this vision of myself as post-coital, post-bondage, post-(ejaculation) tranny with really bad makeup, an electrical cord around my neck and a pink wig.” He worries aloud, laughing out loud, that the semen isn’t visible enough on his painted face. His colleagues are shocked — and love it. “Ryan’s piece is just … a little … yeah,” one contestant laughs nervously, approvingly.
The winners are chosen and move on. Another episode of “Work of Art” is complete, a program aired on national television via your basic cable subscription by the Bravo network, owned by NBC, soon to be owned by Comcast, sponsored by the likes of Geico insurance and Crest toothpaste, and rated TV-14, meaning it is appropriate for any youngster at that age.
There is no outcry because our popular culture is thoroughly rotten.
There reaches a point where you have to say it: I believe in evil. Satan is laughing.
Art in America (Patriot Post)
Reality TV or Glorified Audi Commercial? (Culture Monster)
