Tom Polo created the 2009 B.E.S.T. Contemporary Art Prize for Painting contest. The criteria were typical of the art contests we know. Except for one small point, which stated:
eligible entrants are artists born on the 1st February, 1985 and named as 'Tommaso Polo' on their birth certificates.
The exhibition of the finalists (guess who?) is taking place at the MOP gallery in Sydney.
The winning work, by - you guessed it - Tom Polo, is called Continuous One Liners (Young People Today).
Possibly many of my dear readers are thinking, we've had similar ideas, but they were too childish to execute. Maybe the most seductive part of tricksters is that by putting to life the silliness we only imagine (or think we imagined), they at once make it more serious and much more ridiculous.You can find an interview with the artist at The Art Life.
Why B.E.S.T.? Because Everybody Still Tries.
10 comments:
We can't overlook the humor involved in Polo's gesture either. I found myself laughing out loud. Wittgenstein alluded to the fact that a great philosophical book could be written composed solely of jokes. At times shouldn't art's role be to expose the ridiculous or itself be ridiculous?
Totally agree with you TDLIII!
Weeeerk!! That is such a genius idea! He pretty much exposed art contests for what they really are! Bravo!!
thk, i remember u post
Ingenious! So simple when finally done but not so simple to be the one to do it.
I love it.
What an excellent idea! Ridiculing contemporary art appreciation by magnifying one of the most fundamentally flawed institutions of art appreciation: the art contest.
That's a way to narrow number of contestants. Really original idea.
Regards
Dan
If you have a public space you can use artists to support you. I suppose there is an art to it-
I am always happy in this place, I learned a lot. and I got a lot of knowledge from here. Thank you.
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