The Varsity Show’s art exhibit, in all it’s mediocrity.

Events Editor Finn Klauber viewed the inception of the 1st Annual Varsity Show Art Exhibit/Prank on the plinth of Henry Moore’s soon-to-be-installed statue. Here is Bwog’s review of the installation, as well as Klauber’s comments on the piece.

Note: To maintain the degree of independent artistic production which the members of Varsity Show require to create and install such pieces, we highly suggest future Varsity Show art directors (and pranksters) do not read or discuss this before the end of V122’s run. To quote the crew of V122, “Bwog…[is] not a professional [art] critic, and the only feedback that should be in your heads…is your notes from the team and the gushing praise from your friends and family.”

In the wee hours of the cold and dreary night—which is, as we all know, dark and full of terrors—I was the subject of a free artistic presentation—the equivalent of an experience worth a costly VIP ticket. Artistic individuals from the crew of the Varsity Show, a self-described 122 year old Columbia tradition, installed a faux Henry Moore statue (pictured above) before the doors of Butler Library. The piece’s audience slowly gathered around, surrounding the plinth and questioning how Columbia administration could so quickly and subtly install the controversial statute seemingly overnight.

From an elevated—and dryer—view, I reflected upon the art installation, its grey and splotchy material circumscribed by a ring of glowing cigarette embers and their overstressed owners. I was contentedly surprised with the bleakness of the installation: in an age where artistic vision is muddled with dominating undertones of commercialism, I expected some anachronistically dressed George Washington to exit the billowing commencement tents on the West Lawn and begin rapping. Luckily, no such allusions to lowbrow consumerist icons obscured the artistic vision of the Veesh crew.

And what was this vision? Well, unfortunately I could only deduce so much given the circumstances and technical difficulties present in the piece’s installation. The antithesis in placing a depiction of a splayed woman before the names of various dead white men on Butler’s facade struck me as conceptually sound, but poorly executed. The statue, a prop from V122, could only exist for a limited time in the night’s wet environment. While I can’t deny that the juxtaposition of a slowly dissipating female form before Butler’s facade would draw enough merit to be exhibited in the “Entropy and Decay” collection at the Met Breuer, the technicalities of moving, placing, and removing the statue took precedence over creating a pure and artistic statement.

Consequently, this artistic installation/prank of the Varsity Crew was worth attending if you happened to be smoking in front of Butler at the time—don’t feel disappointed or that you’re missing out. The unfulfilled ambitions, expectations, and ‘what-could-have-beens’ of such an art piece detracted from any real poignancy and topicality that the Varsity Crew was attempting to establish. The piece was merely good, but really, we expected more from an institution such as the Varsity Show.

Note: The author claims the opinions put forth in this review as his own, but the opinions of the majority of (awake) Bwog staff were taken into account during the writing of this artistic review.

Meh art courtesy of Bwog Staff