Grand Rapids, $449K, and WTF Is That?

POST BY MARINA GALPERINA

Jason Hackenwerth, Ecstasy of the Scarlett Empress at ArtPrize, 2009

1,262 artists participated, the public voted, and there you have it — ten meh-inspiring artworks by Grand Rapids’ ArtPrize Finalists. Competing for the grand prize of $250K, contestant work includes a stone Nessie, a picture of water, a moose, and an oversized, pun-titled table. According to the Detroit Free Press, the ten “splashy, attention-getting works” are contending for a “total purse of $449,000, the richest of any contemporary art competition in the world.” Really. Of all these democratically-chosen tacky wonders, I chose the tackiest and most wondrous one of them all – NYC artist Jackson Hackenwerth’s thousand-balloon monster, Ecstasy of the Scarlett Empress. It would make a hell of a costume for the Deitch Art Parade, as would a t-shirt with an image of the work and the message “I Went to Grand Rapids Dressed Like This and All I Got Was $250K.”