Do you watch Bravo TV’s Work of Art? You might remember that last year, I followed the challenges and all but my final project made it to the Work of Art blog that Lindsey maintained for anyone who wanted to create along at home. (My final project, the “Canvas to Couture” series, was done in conjunction with my Project Runway final collection that was posted here on my blog and later was exhibited at the original Barnaby’s.)
Lindsey plans to publish the blog again for the second season. Visit the blog at the link above to see what people are doing, and by all means, if you want to create and add works to it, read the guidelines.
Here’s the way I completed the first challenge, which was to take a piece of kitschy art and turn it into my own “masterpiece.”
Statement: As little as I can tolerate it when people say “Think of the children!” as a knee-jerk reaction to things they don’t like or agree with, lately, “thinking of the children” is something I can’t avoid. I can’t visit an online news site or watch a news show on TV without hearing a lurid story of children abused, abandoned, or killed.
I took what I assume is meant to be a playful illustration for a nursery and altered it with real headlines or excerpts from news articles and essays relating to child violence. Sadly, such accounts weren’t at all difficult to find.
Original piece:
My creation:
I hate it when art makes me uncomfortable. That means the message is working.
sigh. I wish the message were not so.
It’s EVERY day that I see these stories. What the hell is wrong with people?
I have been meaning to comment on this for awhile, I was really surprised by this coming from you, it’s much darker than anything I would imagine my gal Becks doing, so I tihnk that it ads to the emotion of the work for me, that you went to a place where Becks does not usually go. It is very uncomfortable, like part of a crime scene – and frankly I think that is what it is. With all the talk of “what about the children?” or “Barbie is bad for girls ..” as another example, people really aren’t concerned with what is REALLY bad for children – neglect. Whether it be from parents or a community …
Neglect and murder and all forms of abuse. And most of it comes not from the strangers that the sensationalists want society to fear, but from the people and in the places children should be safest: home, school, church.
I’d give a child a “for adult collectors” Barbie any day over a hot car on a summer day or a filthy home.