Artists Sort out Social Media in One other Meh Episode of The Exhibit

Frank Buffalo Hyde, Misha Kahn, and Baseera Khan gathered in entrance of the judging panel for critique (all photos courtesy Paramount)

Again by fashionable demand, one other evaluation for The Exhibit’s second episode, unironically titled “Fifteen Minutes of Fame,” premiering tonight on MTV. I cannot point out this week’s winner, however please concentrate on spoilers forward. I may give credit score the place it’s due and admit that this episode was much more partaking, nevertheless it nonetheless simply doesn’t have that *spark* I so desperately desired whereas watching this in my mattress with Vietnamese summer time rolls.

The second problem this week was for the artists to deal with “the world’s love affair with social media” in simply seven hours as a substitute of the primary episode’s 10 allotted hours over two days, a timeframe chosen within the “spirit of immediacy” concerning the subject. This week’s visitor judges are Maryland Institute Faculty of Artwork (MICA) President Sammy Hoi and museum digital strategist JiaJia Fei.

Jennifer Warren defensively dug her heels in about final week’s victory and the way it reveals that she’s imagined to be on this competitors no matter her academic background. By some means, it made her really feel empowered to aim a sequence of three oil work in seven hours. It went in addition to you’ll be able to think about. Warren painted three images from her personal social media feed to discover the curated self … Meh. I perceive warning about increasing one’s toolkit with a Hirshhorn exhibition and $100,000 on the road, however Warren is about as much as flounder if she doesn’t be taught a brand new trick to complement her lackluster ideas.

The Exhibit contestant Jennifer Warren with one in all her three work from her fee sequence “Digital Cigarettes”

Baseera Khan additionally examined the curation of the self on this spherical, enjoying on the “face, tits, and ass selfie” and relating it to the influential S-curve physique composition of artwork historical past. Their collage of appendages was activated by a fan to carry some motion, which learn like a Boomerang clip to me. It was a intelligent, surface-level exploration of what it takes to current oneself on social media, however a number of the multilayered meanings received misplaced when silliness took heart stage.

Misha Kahn, who stole the present final week, had a kinetically spectacular however conceptually disjointed trash conveyor belt set up which left everybody scratching their heads however dazzled nonetheless. Clare Kambhu additionally bit off greater than she might chew together with her fee that included dozens of previous smartphones with element pictures of her faculty desk graffiti portray that references “old style” social media. Cool in idea, a wrestle in observe.

Nonetheless from episode 2 of The Exhibit

In accordance with Frank Buffalo Hyde, his portray of arms filming an Indigenous Buffalo dance on a telephone was imagined to learn as us “experiencing our lives via our gadgets” and “being absent from the second,” however I truly learn it because the preservation and sharing of tradition via social media. Possibly we’ll must chalk this as much as generational variations, however the portray was lovely nonetheless.

Jamaal Barber was constrained by his technical prowess. His fee that was imagined to painting social media’s addictive “infinite scroll” via a grid of linocut prints was lovely however fully off-base. Identical to within the final problem, approach can’t carry the present.

Jillian Mayer ate and left no crumbs this episode. Her interactive however delicate “Slumpie” equipment made to help our regressive posture (textual content neck, rolled shoulders, curved again) as we scroll mindlessly was one of the crucial intriguing explorations of social media’s bodily affect. I additionally suppose that she and Misha carried the episode with their dry humor because the solid interplay meter continues to flatline.

Frank Buffalo Hyde’s portray “The New, New, New” throughout the crit session

Truthfully, there are such a lot of alternatives for the present to be humorous that nobody capitalizes on. Khan requested the lead decide, Melissa Chiu, to put on the set of faux tits they made for the picture shoot and Chiu simply curves them fully. I’m simply saying that women in Taste of Love didn’t prance round proudly with the world’s most hideous clock necklaces for Chiu to shirk away from the Baseera Boob-Job. Put some respect on actuality TV and provides the individuals what they need: drama, publicity stunts, and covert name-calling.

It looks like one thing is simmering, although, because the preview for episode three reveals an uncomfortable clip of Barber pushing a stool away and bursting into tears. Possibly then I’ll have one thing to speak about moreover the artwork.

Jillian Mayer’s “Slumpie” equipment