The School of Saatchi BBC TV show
AKA The King is in the all together - (Original post from 2nd December 2009)
Ignoring the BBC categorisation of Factual/Arts, Culture & the Media, we must assume that the ‘School of Saatchi’ is to end with an similar revelation to that of Muriel Gray’s ‘Art is Dead, long live TV’ from 1991. Any other endgame is of course too awful to contemplate.
For those of you unfamiliar with the piece, it was a spoof series that showcased the work of ‘artists’ who were later exposed as fakes from diverse backgrounds; a computer salesman, an architect, an antiques dealer and a beautician. Apparently, the original title was to be ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ but that just might have given the game away.
Ah, how we all fell about back then as Ms Gray sought to challenge how we view art on the box. The BBC clearly thinks that sufficient time has elapsed since the Channel 4 series and that the joke is worth running again. Perhaps the ruse this time around is aimed at gauging the response through social networking channels such as Twitter. What devious minds are at work here? I just wish that the main players had been given a little more scope.
The work presented thus far pales into insignificance when compared to that of Ms Gray’s cocktail of colourful rogues – These consisted of a sculptor who fashioned rotting flesh, human faeces and vomit… a film director with a fridge’s-eye view of New York… a conceptualist artist designing biodegradable houses in the forests of Bavaria… and a radical Scots author claiming to have ‘redefined the novel’.
Certainly, one may forgive the beeb for struggling to compete with this fine array of talent but surely a better effort could have been made. After all, they do have a wealth of bizarre current acts to pick from. Indeed, one of the ‘experts’ herself leads from the front and she must be hugely disappointed with the ‘schlock of the new’. I chuckled somewhat as the panel asked the ‘student’ “why is this art?”… Emin herself can fall back on the old faithful “because I say so” but it was clear that the others were rather hoping for some mind-blowing answer that they themselves could note for future use.
Now don’t get me wrong, dumbing down the arts in a ‘reality’ TV program is a great idea. But if the BBC is really hitching onto a trundling ratings bandwagon, please give us the celebrity version with the usual suspects.
Post script…
Sad to say, the series ended with no twist.
A simple ‘unreality’ program that meant Eugenie went to Moscow thanks to Chas. I was rather hoping it was a one-way ticket, but I’m guessing she’ll be back with Emin ‘upping her’ big-time. I suggest a new conceptual reality piece awaits, entitled “I made my bed and she can lie in it”.