“Even artists who attempt to position themselves so far outside of commerce, like Rirkrit Tiravanija, I mean, he’s wildly successful commercially,” she argued, before sensibly adding, “Maybe I would have been better off if I’d cooked everyone grilled cheese sandwiches on the street and then done that in the gallery as well.” Yes, we heartily agree, having just last week consumed some spicy curry in MoMA’s hallowed halls. In fact, we might even suggest to Ms. Kabot, if we still had her on the phone, that she could have built a giant silver slide that shot from Tribeca Park all the way into Gagosian Gallery’s foyer.
CONCLUSION: If we’re going to split hairs about what it entails to “sell out” (according to the Oxford English Dictionary, U.S. political slang meaning “to betray a person or cause for gain”), we might begin to question the motives of anyone competing on an art reality-television show. But then again, we’re running out of space, so we’ll just stick with Bravo’s notion, that selling out is what one does when one doesn’t have gallery representation (which, upon second thought, may or may not be synonymous with the reasons for signing up to be on an art reality-television show).
editorial@observer.com
