Back on demand, another review for The exhibitionIt is second episode, titled without irony “Fifteen Minutes of Fame”, premiering tonight on MTV. I won’t mention this week’s winner, but be aware of spoilers ahead. I can give credit where it’s due and admit that this episode was much more engaging, but it still doesn’t have that *spark* that I so desperately craved watching this in my bed with Vietnamese summer rolls .
The second challenge this week was for artists to tackle “the world’s love affair with social media” in just seven hours instead of the 10 hours allotted to the first episode over two days, a timeframe chosen in the “spirit of immediacy” regarding the subject. This week’s guest judges are the president of the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Sammy Hoi, and the museum’s digital strategist, JiaJia Fei.
Jennifer Warren defensively built on last week’s win and how it shows she’s meant to be in this competition regardless of her background. Somehow it made her feel empowered to attempt a series of three oil paintings in seven hours. It went as well as you can imagine. Warren painted three photos from his own social media feed to explore the organized self… Meh. I understand the caution about expanding her toolbox with a Hirshhorn exhibit and $100,000 at stake, but Warren is ready to flounder if she doesn’t learn a new trick to complement her lackluster concepts.
Baseera Khan also examined self-curation in this spin, playing on the “face, tits and ass selfie” and connecting it to art history’s influential S-curve body composition. Their collage of appendages was fan-activated to bring movement, which read like a Boomerang clip to me. It was a clever, superficial exploration of what it takes to show up on social media, but a lot of the multi-layered meanings got lost when the silliness took center stage.
Misha Kahn, who stole the show last week, had a kinetically impressive but conceptually disjointed waste conveyor belt installation that left everyone scratching their heads but dazzled nonetheless. Clare Kambhu also bit more than she could chew with her commission which incorporated dozens of old smartphones with detailed shots of her school desk’s graffiti painting that references ‘old school’ social media. Cool in theory, a struggle in practice.
According to Frank Buffalo Hyde, his painting of hands filming a Native Buffalo dance on a phone was meant to read as us “living our lives through our devices” and “being absent from the moment”, but I actually read it as preservation and sharing of culture through social media. Maybe we should chalk it up to generational differences, but the paint job was beautiful nonetheless.
Jamal Barber was constrained by his technical prowess. His commission which was meant to depict the addictive “infinite scroll” of social media through a grid of linocut prints was beautiful but entirely out of place. Just like in the last challenge, the technique cannot carry the show.
Jillian Mayer ate and left no crumbs this episode. One of the most intriguing explorations of the physical impact of social media was his interactive yet subtle ‘Slumpie’ device designed to support our regressive posture (texting necks, rolled shoulders, hunched backs) as we parade mindlessly. I also think she and Misha carried the episode with their dry humor as the cast interaction meter continues to stagnate.
Honestly, there are so many opportunities for the show to be humorous that no one takes advantage of. Khan asked head judge Melissa Chiu to wear the set of fake boobs they made for the photoshoot and Chiu simply curled them up fully. I’m just saying the ladies of flavor of love didn’t proudly walk around with the world’s most hideous clock collars for Chiu to shirk the Baseera Boob-Job. Respect reality TV and give people what they want: drama, publicity stunts and secret name calling.
It looks like something is cooking, however, as the preview for episode three shows an uncomfortable clip of Barber pushing back a stool and bursting into tears. Maybe then I will have something to say besides art.
