WHAT IT TAKES TO WIN AN ART CONTEST

In New Zealand, Poppy Lekner has won the 2020 Parkin Drawing Prize and a $25,000 cash prize for her artwork called ‘Forward Slash’. Hers was chosen as the winner from an impressive 482 entries nationwide. To make her artwork, called ‘Forward Slash’, Poppy put a piece of paper in an old Brother Typewriter and hit the forward slash key a couple thousand times. It’s a page full of forward slashes. It’s not even drawn, it’s typewritten. Charlotte Davy, the judge for this year’s prize said: “It is a delicate unrelenting work produced on a Brother typewriter, the artist has mechanically made the same mark over and over again, meshing and weaving the symbol into a single image. Far from the kind of quick digital keyboard art that can readily be morphed into emoji, this piece is a beautiful meditation created using a laborious process of pressing the character into the surface repeatedly in a line, then adjusting and realigning the paper at the end of each row before setting out again.”
* Does the judge even know how a typewriter works?
* This artist’s work sounds reminiscent of Jack Torrance’s famous page full of “All Work And No Play Makes Jack A Dull Boy” in “The Shining.”
* She couldn’t even be bothered to add some BACKslashes for a zig-zag effect?
* Unfortunately, the artist was driven insane by the little bell ringing at the end of each row of slashes.
* So … how much kickback do you think artist Poppy Lekner gave judge Charlotte Davy for the $25,000 prize? Half?
* Ugh. When it comes to art, this is not my type.