In the comments on this post, Christopher Fahey says (quoting me):

It will be just a bunch of desperate artists doing their best to suck-up to the art world honchos as they watch their dignity being stabbed out like a stale cigarette.

And how is that different from the real art world? I mean on the Deitch plane of existence, of course.

Yes. It’s not. But at least for those willing to lose their dignity off-camera they can attempt to keep it a secret. Whoring oneself proudly in front of a camera is much sadder than whoring oneself in private. [Not that I have any experience with either ;-)]

I think the show is brilliant, and I very much look forward to it. It’s obviously not targeted at artists with dignity, so you shouldn’t try to imagine yourself as a contestant on the show. Instead, you should think about the great entertainment that will result from watching all of the art world “types” that you probably hate humiliate themselves on television. Savor it.

Yet another sad aspect of this soon-to-be fiasco: it probably won’t even make it to regular TV! Fashion designers are a billion times more popular (by my estimation) than artists in the mainstream culture, yet, Project Runway is on Bravo — which, seriously, is barely on TV. A show focusing on artists will be lucky if it makes it to cable access. If it’s extremely successful: PBS! Yet they’ll find more more-than-willing artists to exploit and degrade themselves than they know what to do with.

Reality TV is built on the audience savoring others’ misery and humiliation — but this one is just hitting to close to home. permanent link to this post