artstar

OK, so I generally try not to write about the things other bloggers are writing about, unless it’s a list re-blog multi-recap “the world today” type thinger, rather than the standard collective conscious “I have not written about X yet, and I have to” stuff (but wait, dude, have you seen all the sh!t on this guy? Do a search and see even more! GuckertGate! Had to link it. Just had to.)…

…but it seems that only digital art geeks in NYC, and rhizome regulars, have picked up on artstar. I am yet to hear anything about it in SA.

Basically, it’s the apprentice, but for artists: a reality TV show where you get to meet great critics on a group exhibition, and maybe land a solo show in Chelsea, NYC, if you win.

Other than the fact that they are totally booked out for auditions, the general “in-the-know” vibe is that it’s totally commercialized bullsh!t that will make fun of artists, and mostly pay attention to them and their neuroses, rather than their art.

The other side is, you bet your ASS there’d be a lineup of just about every artist – famous already or not – in Joburg to get on this show; we just don’t have the resources to make art happen here in the same ways, and “selling out” is the only way to “buy in.” And remember, this here is coming from a privileged whitey. How many artists do you know that manage to actually make all the work they dream up? A portion of it? Get to even SHOW the work they’ve already made, in the way they want? the kebbles are the only way – and many more south africans love the work he is doing (myself included), than are reminding us that he was not at the top of our lists too long ago.

I also wouldn’t mind a bigger audience for my work. Art is a public service, after all, no? Man, what a real opportunity.

But I digress.

Then again, I could care less about the musicians who have been on the real world, so maybe I’m just talking out of my ass…

I just wish I had the chance for something like that, that artists in jozi had chances like that. I yearn for a space that allows me to say I don’t want that, on principle, rather than making me feel jealous of the possibilities that can come out of it.

Of course I’d rather ask viewers to perform my work into existence, and look at themselves in the process, than make a spectacle of trying to get a gig (not that it isn’t already a spectacle, but that’s not the important part of what I do.).

Unfortunately, my world is not as simple as Bush’s. Situations like this are always already a both/and and not an either/or. I wish the world were that easy, but you are not either “with us or against us”…. (ask guckert)

I’ll watch, and see where it takes us….