ART COMPETITION = BAD TASTE

The Helen Pitt Graduate Awards expose absurdities and questionable

practices to which artists subject themselves.

A

After four years of work within a school of art, artists
are lured into a competitive pageant. Artistic pursuit
is not engaged for competitive purposes, yet a competitive

extravaganza at Robson Square establishes a questionable

climax.

There is one sole adjudicator (a sculotor) who will pick
from hundreds of works from all graduating students in
Fine Arts (who compete) from U. Vic, UBC, Simon Fraser,
and ECCAD. Armed with a polaroid and his own particular

taste, he seeks to function as an informed and responsible
jUGYo oe

The lure of award money and opportunity to display work
nublicly,successfully attracts competitors. In our materialist
society where alienation abounds, artists strive to be
connectors, embodying wholistic human Values ob: Bue yets

artists are sucked into the consumer vortex of art game
playing, comnpetina for awards or prestigious aallery space

with remuneration on the basis of what the market will bear.

In protest against the above, six students have organized hherPabt ts

Undergraduate Show’, a competition with a difference: all

contestants are on the jury and all get Ist Place - with a blue ribbon.

WAY TO GO;

= Pieter Kos