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Problem
I was broke at uni but didn't want to get a shitty job.
Insight
People pay silly amounts of money for crap, abstract art.
Idea
There was an old wooden backboard with paint spilled all over it knocking about in my uni building. I decided to cut out the bit I most liked the look of, frame it, and enter it into the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition.
Result
A Royal Academy exhibited piece. £1800 in my pocket.
The first round required you to send the RA a photo.
This is what I sent.
This round also required you to name the piece. I chose Recognitions 19 because 'The Recognitions' is a novel all about art forgery, and '19' made it sound like I was a real artist who had made other pieces of art.
I am not a real artist. I have made no other pieces of art.
I then got an email saying that, of the thousands of pieces entered, mine was one they were considering exhibiting. This meant they wanted to see the real thing.
Most other artists got a private delivery service to drop their piece off. I took the bus.
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It was also at this point that they asked for a description. I wrote the wankiest, most pretentious description imaginable, describing Recognitions 19 as, among other things, a 'visual palimpsest.'
A few weeks later I found out that my entry had been selected to be exhibited.
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This is me showing it off to a friend - I did a lot of this over the months it was there.
One day I spotted a little red dot just beneath the frame.
Someone had made an offer!
Recognitions 19 eventually sold for £1800. This meant I could afford to eat, pay my rent, and even go on holiday that summer.
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Not bad for a few minutes' work.
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