Over the holidays I have admittedly found myself looking for things to watch on 4od on Youtube. Little did I know what I came across.
An episode of Faking it, from 2001, in which a Painter and Decorator named Paul has to pretend he is an emerging Artist in the London Art Scene and convince 3 critics he is the real deal. At the end of the programme he was able to fool 2 out of 3 critics.
Through the episode he dives right into producing work and practicing. I found it very interesting to watch because it brought up a few questions in relation to the Art World in general, but as myself as a practicing Artist trying to make it into this world. Could it be that Paul had an artistic spark in himself all along that he did not know of, he seems to think so in the programme. But it could be argued that through quick revision and having the paint skills from decorating he is able to 'blag' his way through. This could mean that anyone could be an artist if they wanted to really. This then brought up the question of, is this a good or a bad thing? and are people genuine when it comes to their work?
I also thought it was ridiculous they they 'restyled' him to look more like an Artist. I thought these days anyone looked the part.
I am beginning to ask myself these questions, but I do strongly believe that this year I have been able to create genuine pieces that reflect what I want to say and throughout the term they have been moulded into my own style and I hope to continue with that. Through carrying on researching and looking at different Artists I hope that my work will become stronger.
Unfortunately embedding is disabled for the video, but is available on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRtriHsSrtc&list=SL&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fshow%3Fp%3Dg7CLpseB-Gw%26s%3D2&has_verified=1
