In The Pink

S01E04

Coincidentally, this conversation is what makes Jaime Lynn awful. It's too bad, because I was rooting for her before this, but that angry-face art-crit appalled-jaw over-it act is just about the most unattractive dealbreaking thing you can do. It's not your art, you are not allowed to be incensed on its behalf like some kind of Linux nerd scoffing angrily because somebody, somewhere, bought an iPad. I mean, I get that JL is religious, it's one of the things I like about her, but to get all "Christ's message has been demeaned by culture," while at the same time snotting around about the Nature of Art, is... Pretty shallow. Luckily, Abdi is a class act, so he just agrees that he has been educated in the nature of art, and we move on.

China Chow, what on earth are you wearing, sweetheart? A rigorously constructed black bubble skirt and cute lacy top. I bet that thing's got chicken-wire in it! She busts up in there with Andres, who looks great, and Simon introduces them. They clap and I think Nao curtsies, and Erik stares at him and identifies with Andres Serrano because... What else does he have? Erik is aware of one more artist today than he was yesterday, and this one likes pee. Ryan says he's not "shocking per se," but that housewives don't get him; John just says exhaustedly that being gay is in itself shocking and people are always bugging you, so no big deal.

Andres says the word "shit" one million times, which... Yep. They all laugh and wonder why he keeps saying that word "shit." Simon gets on board at end, which elicits actual shocked laughter, and makes the whole thing worth it. On their way out to hit Utrecht, Presbyteria pulls some kind of Namaste bullshit at Andres. Good Lord that girl.

Okay, let's be shocking already, with a $100 budget. Abdi consults a tiny cute art-store elf about how to make candles, I guess out of his own fat or something. He admits he's always looking to be shocking, if not sexual. Ryan and Nao -- there's a pair of assholes for ya -- giggle and roam thinking about shocking things, while JL in her leopard-print scarf decides that in fact she's been subtly referencing Serrano all along and not Gilbert & George like she clearly has been. Although I guess it's hard to hit that NEA-friendly mix of "creepy" and "accessible" just right, so maybe that's the influence.

Oh wait, no, what she's saying is that she's been invoking him in her own defense. Maybe that explains her weird defensiveness about him. She talks at length about hypocrisy and Christianity and faith and all that, and it's pretty compelling because you can see why she would be so attached to Serrano, and I guess it was just her affect in that moment that bothered me so much. Still, she gets pretty pissy, and when I like her work it's generally not for the same reasons she seems to think it's worthwhile. Like, the vacuum cleaner thing was my favorite piece besides John's in the junk challenge, but only because it was aesthetically pleasing, whereas she seemed to think it was Exile In Guyville. I imagine her shocking art will be a self-portrait of herself wearing white shoes and a calendar proving it's long past Labor Day.