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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2009 > December > 07 > Entry
Okay Mountain’s ‘Corner Store’ nets PULSE award
Congrats to the collective Okay Mountain for winning the 2009 Miami PULSE Award at PULSE, the contemporary arts fair.
The Austin collective was selected by the PULSE Committee as emerging artists of distinction from their project iin the IMPULSE section of the fair.
‘Corner Store’ was an ersatz off-brand micro-convenience store that sold ersatz items — think fake beef jerky and a simulated slushy machine. Thousands of hours in the making, ‘Corner Store’ was a brilliant spoof on the very nature of trendy art fairs and the swirl of commerce and fashion.
Read a previous post about the project.
‘Corner Store’ was a commission from Arthouse, the Congress Avenue contemporary arts center. The Okay Mountain team received a reported $7500 budget to produce and travel ‘Corner Store’ to Miami along with all of the 11-member collective in tow. The Okay Mountain artists staffed ‘Corner Store’ as clerks.
Any income from sales — yes, the ersatz items were for sale — were reportedly to be divided between Arthouse and Okay Mountain.
The art-making Okay mountaineers gets a $2,500 PULSE prize check. Oh, and they are also offered the opportunity to design a limited-edition PULSE tote bag.
Really? A limited-edition tote bag? Wonder if the judges really understood what ‘Corner Store’ was all about.
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By truth
December 16, 2009 9:57 AM | Link to this
thats right… that idea is truly a TOTAL RIP OFF!!!! Even down to the products in the “corner store”!!! There are some things that are even an exact copy!!!! These “artists” can NOT claim ignorance as the Street Market show was created by three established artists and personalities. Also it was done at a Jeffery Deitch Gallery. The show went on to the Venice Biennale, and Japan where a book was made of the show and the products in it. To me this is a crime. In any other creative disciplines this would be an infringement of a creative copyright and punishable.