Talking to a student while surveying his work, Paul McCarthy told him to “make it weirder.”
It’s MacCarthy’s McCarthy’s version of Jasper Johns’ all-purpose art formula: “Take an object. Do something to it. Do something else to it.”
Only artists who know their way around the weird can hope to win the 2009 Metropolis Art Prize: $20,000, a dedicated artist channel on Babelguym’s Metropolis and a screening in Times Square. There are other cash prizes with a Times Square spotlight, including one for “best street art video.” (Info on Two Coats of Paint)
Jurors say they want to be “inspired, challenged, excited, awed, moved, intrigued and weirded-out.” Open to artists in all visual media, but entries have to be submitted on video.
Northwest artists who should put a video together (or use one they’ve already made) include:
Matt McCormick, detail from The Subconscous Art of Graffiti Removal
Laura Fritz (The cat, Laura. Put a stamp on it and slide it into a mail box.)
Tivon Rice (Osteotmy)
The Northwest has a rich vein of the strange to tap, and I’ve only just begun. I’ll end with a glass artist.
Eli Hansen, Jack Pepsi
For the category of best street video, nobody’s going to top Jessica Jobaris dancing as if she’d been shot.
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