Follow Chris on TV's 'Big Art Challenge'

Are you following MMU student Chris Boyd’s progress on the Big Art Challenge on national TV?

Chris, 21, makes videos which are innovative and great to look at, and his talents have carried him to the final 10 artists for the £10,000 Big Art Challenge prize.

Screened on Channel 5 on Thursdays, the Big Art Challenge gives undiscovered artists the chance to show they’re the next Damien Hirst or John Constable in a nationwide competition.

Each week, judges Brian Sewell, Wayne Hemingway and Jane Wilson argue over what constitutes great art in the ‘reality’ show which includes a sculptor, a performance artist, a photographer, a painter and, of course, Chris, who is a second-year on MMU’s Interactive Arts degree course.

The show, which is supported by the Arts Council for England and Wales, pits professional against amateur and Chris is the only art college student in the final on November 15.

Chris, from Warrington, won the regional heats at Manchester’s Lowry Museum and impressed again at the semi-final at the Baltic Arts Centre, Newcastle.

Brian Sewell, known for his ‘traditional view on art, admitted to ‘changing his mind’ about video art after seeing Chris’s work.

“He doesn’t normally like video, and I was expecting a mauling. But he really warmed to my stuff,” said Chris, who describes his work as “cross medium, narrative filmmaking.”

Hazel Jones, a lecturer in Interactive Arts at MMU said: “The judges will see how Chris’s art works at intellectual, aesthetic and technical levels with lots of subtleties
and a beautiful sense of colour and light.”

Channel 5 calls the programme “a unique event in which all strands of art, modern and traditional, compete on a completely level playing field.

As well as attracting career building profile and publicity throughout the competition, the winner of Big Art Challenge 2004 will be awarded £10,000. There will also be a second Peoples Prize voted for by viewers. The winner of that will get £2,000.

For more information about the BA(Hons) Interactive Arts course, contact the School of Art on 0161 247 3548/3549 e-mail artdes.fac@mmu.ac.uk