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"FacebookPinterest\n\nLast week on the new Bravo show Work of Art, we were shocked when Trong, the only contestant who had previously established himself in the art world, was eliminated. In that same episode, we met guest judge Jon Kessler, a mid-media sculptor, best known for his work with a variety of video monitors. He is currently preparing for an exhibition at the  Kunsthalle Wien museum in Vienna, playing in his band X-Patsys, and teaching graduate students at Columbia University's School of the Arts. Kessler spoke with GQ about his experience on reality TV.\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\nWere you involved with planning the challenge?\n\n I pitched a few ideas and they didn't take any of my ideas... The original challenge was going to let them go in a Salvation Army Depot. So it would be clothing, paintings, records, books, everything you could find in a Salvation Army. I loved that idea. And then the night before, they called me and they said \"In fact there was a problem and we're actually not going to have access to the entire Salvation Army. We're just going to have appliances that are going to be in the Salvation Army loading dock.\" And then all of a sudden I got really nervous, because I thought it was starting to cater the challenge too much towards me and my work... It was sort of like, \"Bravo, yeah, I might have signed my contract, but you're throwing a curve ball here.\"\n\nSo you were going to drop out at the last minute?\n\n The night before. I had sympathy. I knew they were figuring out some stuff... The spontaneity I was sort of into, but when they called me and said it was going to be an appliance graveyard... I was thinking, \"So you've got Andres Serrano as the shock art judge. Are you going to have, like, crucifis and piss jars in order for them to make their work?\" It was too close to home. And then it turns out that I didn't have to worry...\n\nDo you think that was helpful for the contestants, because your feedback had a chance to be more applicable to their work?\n\n I think it was a really successful episode, but you have to remember we were all walking on pins and needles before the show was filmed. Like really, \"What is this [show] going to be?\" Sort of a little bit like blind faith. So when they threw that curveball it was like \"Oh my god. I am getting screwed here. They're going to reduce my work to a soundbite like, Jon Kessler, the guy who works with appliances. And now here's the appliances.\" So it was a worry. But it turned out to be fine... And they put together a very good team. I'm kind of really impressed. They had great intuition and the right advisers.\n\nWere you happy that Miles won?\n\n That's a great piece.\n\nWas it down to Miles and Nicole in the end?\n\n Yeah it was.\n\nIt was surprising that Nicole didn't win, based on her design background and work in sculpture.\n\n I'm kind of surprised that the footage they showed of her was more of the destructive girl in high heels with a sledge hammer. There's a lot of subtle complexity with that piece that did not necessarily get air time. Miles's piece was amazing. We knew it was going to blow people's minds... There was some discussion as to whether he should win a second episode in a row. But it was between him and Nicole, and he scraped by.\n\nWas there one thing that tipped the scale towards Miles?\n\n In the end, I think it was just more radical... I think we were all challenged by this piece that we all couldn't fully understand. And let's face it, that's what you want: that piece of art that you keep coming back to and learn more about and continually get something from.\n\nJerry Saltz said that the format of the show slightly resembles a formal critique that artists would receive in an MFA program. As a Columbia professor, do you agree?\n\n It was a 14-hour judging, which on air only takes about 15 minutes. In that entire, crazy 14-hour period of hurry-up-and-wait, make-up, check your mic, nothing felt real... And, I have to say, the crit with the contestants was very real. That's when I knew that there was going to be what's on the show and then there's going to be what actually happened that lives on in the minds of the contestants and judges... But yes, I think that part felt very real to me and very similar to what I do at school.\n\nThe show might make art more accessible to a wider audience.\n\n I was intrigued after seeing American Idol and Top Chef that you can take the creative process and get people to see that it's a very exciting and powerful thing... And it's the end of modernism, let's face it... I felt like if the show is done right, then there could be kids out in the middle of nowhere who are watching the show and think, \"Hey let's go... form a community arts group.\" I would hate to predetermine what these things turn into. But I would hate not to do them and have the art world just exist in Chelsea and the Guggenheim. What surprised me is that since my episode was aired... now I go to my Pilates studio and people are talking about Miles, and they're talking about Nao. You actually care about these people. That was kind of a revelation."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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