Cabinet and P.S.1 present IRON ARTIST (The Reality Show You've Been Waiting For)

Heidi Schumann for The New York Times
Olav Westphalen, second from left, and his team won at "Iron Artist" at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center. 

UPDATE, 6/12/06:
via NYTimes:
On Your Mark, Get Set, Create Something Arty
By SEWELL CHAN 

[...] The two-hour show, billed as "an absurdist multimedia spectacle of competitive, real-time art making," drew more than 1,400 people who laughed, applauded and groaned through the event. Dozens watched from the windows and even the roof of the museum's Romanesque Revival building. 

The event compressed the process of making and interpreting art into a frenzy of activity. 

Along with the announcers and judges, two roving commentators offered play-by-play analysis and four critics wrote reviews as the works were created. The essays, written using laptop computers, were compiled in a 20-page catalog that was to be distributed immediately after the event. (A computer glitch delayed production of the catalog, which will be available online.) An organist provided musical accompaniment throughout the afternoon. 

Despite the levity, organizers said the event, part of the series "Fine Print: Alternative Media at P.S. 1," was partly intended as a critique of how quickly art is produced and valued. "It sort of accelerates even further the speed of the art world today," said Sina Najafi, the editor of Cabinet, a quarterly arts magazine, who organized the event with Matt Freedman, an artist.[...] 

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via Cabinet:

Cabinet and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center Present

IRON ARTIST

Saturday, June 10, 3:00 pm
(Rain Date: Sunday, June 11, 3:00 pm)
Venue: Courtyard of P.S.1, Long Island City

Free wth admission

As part of the series Fine Print: Alternative Media at P.S.1, Cabinet and P.S.1 present Iron Artist, an over-the-top, multimedia event of competitive, real-time art making. Inspired by the original Japanese cooking show Iron Chef, Iron Artist is an event that invites the public to witness competitive improvised art making between contemporary artists, critique and commentary of the artwork by local art personalities, and celebrate the final works in the exhibition opening immediately following the competition. Iron Artist is organized by artist Matt Freedman, Cabinet Sina Najafi, and P.S.1 Programming Coordinator Colby Chamberlain, and is free with museum admission ($5.00 suggested donation; $2.00 for students and senior citizens; free for MoMA members and MoMA admission ticket holders).

The Competition
The event, whose point of departure is the original Japanese version of "Iron Chef," is an over-the-top multi-media spectacle of competitive, real-time art-making. It consists of two duels, each lasting 45 minutes. Using materials and tools available at the venue, the opponents in each duel will make an artwork in response to a secret theme revealed to them on the spot. While artists create their directly work before the audience, running commentary will be provided by a panel of celebrity judges, roving reporters, and prominent New York critics.

The Artists
Duel I: Jude Tallichet against Olav Westphalen
Duel II: Big Room (Julian Laverdiere & Vincent Mazeau) against Type A (Adam Ames and Andrew Bordwin).

The Commentators
Roving reporters will give “play by play” commentary from the thick of the action. The reporters are MASS MoCA curator Nato Thompson and Art in General curator Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy. The event will be anchored by Matt Freedman and New York Observer senior editor Choire Sicha. Iron Artist will be captured on video and displayed on TVs for the audience in real-time, along with special video segments filmed and edited by artist and Cabinet Editorial Assistant Ned Kihn.

The Critics
A critic will be assigned to each artist and commissioned to write a catalog essay while works are still being made. A catalogue for the entire event, along with the essays and images, will be designed by Cabinet graphic designer Leah Beeferman and printed up within half an hour of the end of the show in time for an opening reception for the artworks. Participating critics include: Cabinet editor-at-large Frances Richard, Time Out New York arts editor Andrea Scott, writer and artist Thomas Zummer, and artist and arts writer Barbara Pollack.

The Music
Artist and musician Brian Dewan will provide musical accompaniment on organ.

The Judges
A panel of four judges will give marks based on originality, execution, and how closely each artwork responded to the assigned theme. The judges correspond to different significant segments of the contemporary art world: Mary Ceruti is Executive Director of the Sculpture Center; Monroe Denton is a collector of contemporary art and a critic; Brett Littman is Deputy Director of P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center; and Becky Smith is the owner of Bellwether Gallery in Chelsea.

"Iron Artist" is made possible by the Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art.