Doug Fishbone Artwork Appropriated By Sky Arts To Create Culture Gameshow

Sky arts

The well known Conceptual artist Doug Fishbone has had his work appropriated by Sky Arts and turned into a game show. The concept which originally took place at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in 2015 saw visitor numbers quadruple in the three month period as enthusiastic ‘connoisseurs’ took up the challenge of identifying a Chinese replica of Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s Portrait of a Young Woman, among the permanent collection.

The Sky Arts programme unoriginally replicates the concept by placing fakes in a number of public collections, instructing contestants online and live to seek out and identify the works with team leaders hosted by writer Giles Coren and historian Rose Balston, whose time would be better spent as a critic/columnist and art historian/travel guide.

The TV series called Fake! The Great Masterpiece Challenge is yet another example of the dumbing down of culture by unoriginal production companies who lack insight as to what the public want to watch. It is no wonder that Sky Arts has such low viewing figures. Muppets! Both Doug Fishbone and the Dulwich Picture Gallery declined to participate in the programme. What a surprise! 

Meanwhile, Artist Doug Fishbone has transformed the QUAD Gallery in Derby into a playful environment, taking visitors on an amusing and thought-provoking journey with an artist-designed mini-golf course. The Gallery installation uses the fun and accessible game of mini-golf as a powerful tool for questioning the leisure industry and society’s compulsion for consumption whilst also addressing other important cultural topics from migration to global warming and globalisation. Artists include:  Yinka Shonibare MBE, John Akomfrah OBE, Hetain Patel, Yara El-Sherbini, Ellie Harrison, Candice Jacobs, Lindsay Seers, Eyal Weizman, Reactor, Doug Fishbone.

The artwork was originally commissioned for the 56th Venice Biennale by EM15, a collective of arts organisations from the East Midlands, including QUAD, New Art Exchange, One Thoresby Street and Beacon Art Project with support from Nottingham Trent University and The University of Nottingham. More information can be seen: www.em15venice.co.uk 

The Gallery installation uses the fun and accessible game of mini-golf as a powerful tool for questioning the leisure industry and society’s compulsion for consumption whilst also addressing other important cultural topics from migration to global warming and globalisation. 

The exhibition follows on from Doug Fishbone and Friends: Adventureland Golf which was in QUAD for two weeks in September 2013. Over 2000 people came to see the artworks, which included golf holes designed by Jake and Dinos Chapman and David Shrigley. QUAD Curator Peter Bonnell commented: “We are delighted to be bringing Doug Fishbone’s popular golf work back to QUAD. Mini-golf is an unusual but really enjoyable way to access art, fun for all the family and with some really thought-provoking content.” 

“People naturally asked lots of questions about the exhibition as they complete the holes. That’s why when Peter told us the latest exhibition was coming to QUAD, we jumped at the chance to get more closely involved. The ballsy politics of Doug Fishbone’s exhibition fits perfectly with the way we work.” 

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