but is it Art?

School of Saatchi
BBC 2, mondays, 9pm

It’s all about apprenticeships these days. Should you not wish to follow Bills exploits (over on the weekly liveblog) perhaps you might want to follow the path of the art worlds newest pop culture artist. Or at least that’s what they hope to be.

Charles Saatchi, world famous art collector, museum owner and patron is looking for the artworlds Next Big Thing. He held an open submission contest and hundreds applied. Who wouldn’t? The prize is a three year patronage and your own studio. This is the man who discovered Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin. Think of them what you will but these guys earn THOUSANDS on their work.
The hundreds got whittled down to 12 who got to show their work to a judging panel of artist Tracey Emin, critic and broadcaster Matthew Collings, art collector Frank Cohen and Barbican curator Kate Bush (what thoughts I may have had about Emin before are certainly now “what a dingbat”). Work included things such as a john deer style wheel on a treadmill, a whistle hanging from a handle and some chairs laid in a circle. Heck, I should have applied, I can create bullshit popart just as well as the next guy.

These got cut down to a final six. Who have a studio for three months to create the piece to win them the coveted prize.

To be fair there was some genuine talent amongst the chaff. A video artist who captures moments in the world and makes you look again. A successful commercial artist who has had no official training just raw talent and a guy who made a recreation of a space based on a film.

This week the six chosen artists are commissioned to produce large-scale pieces of art for the seaside resort of Hastings. They have two weeks and a limited budget to create work that appeals to the general public.

Watch it, if only to enflame your sense of ‘You have GOT to be joking.. You call that ART??!’