Primary work: How to Euro Art School: Episode One
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Transcript
- Artist
This is a video artwork — the piece is the moving image, not a still. I have the full transcript to share. Workflow I’ll follow: 1. Upload a poster still in the composer (for vision). 2. Add the video in the Media panel — primary video file OR YouTube/Vimeo URL. 3. Paste the transcript in chat for you to stage. Please set measurementType ["time-based"] and medium "video". Ask duration when we get to it. Stage all five tag fields after the poster still is analyzed. Use the transcript for context when drafting descriptions — do not invent dialogue or meaning that isn’t in the transcript. No painting, DCS, or ACH workflows. Weave reflective questions through the session; don’t save them for the end. this video was made in 2014 for a project for my film class at the comunity college in san francisco, its about how I got into artschool in holland
- Art/Official
Good — staged medium, year, city, and series. Workflow noted; I'll follow your steps. A film class project about getting into art school in the Netherlands — that's a specific moment in the origin story of your whole practice. Does this feel like a document of that time, or something you made with more distance from it?
- Artist
it was made later like 14 years later
- Art/Official
So 2014 is actually the subject — the application, getting in — but you made the video later, looking back. When did you actually make it?
- Artist
I made it in 2014, but was about what happened in 1998
- Art/Official
Got it — made in 2014, about events from 1998. That's a significant gap to be working across. Before you upload the poster still — describe this work to me first, before either of us sees it. There's no right way to do this — however it comes is exactly right.
- Artist
This is a video about how I got a chance to go to art school in europe
- Art/Official
Stored. Go ahead and upload the poster still in the composer when you're ready.
- Artist
I have uploaded the primary artwork image.
- Art/Official
No legacy record for this one — it wasn't on the old site. That tracks for a video work. The poster reads **"How to Euro Art School — Episode One"** — you're in what looks like your San Francisco studio, working on a transfer painting, in black and white. Is that the right title, and does "Episode One" mean there were more planned or made?
- Artist
yes, was planned but havn't yet - i have the transcirpt so will upload here Bernard Bolton, I'd like to tell you how I got the ball rolling to go to art school in Europe. From San Francisco, back in the day, started kind of doing art on my own. I was chilling, wanted to get out, so I started looking at Europe, traveling out there, saving up a little bit back and forth. I was over there in France, kind of Belgium, Holland, Germany. I originally wanted to kind of post up in Berlin, but I was a little bit too crazy at the time. Crazy, but raw, man, it was raw. I was like, there I stayed for a while, but when I started setting in, man, I got cold, so I went back to California to get a new plan, so I was like, all right, back in, back in California. Let me check out Amsterdam, Holland a little bit more. I was chilling there, you know, I was a little bit closer to what I knew coming from San Francisco, but, you know, still had that Germanic twist, so check it out, man. There were some cool people over there and went and posted out, doing some things, trying to work it out, making the art or whatever. Some things worked out, some things didn't, but once again, it was time to come back once that winter started setting in. So I was like, all right, but, you know, let me see what I can do for the future. So I'm like, let me check out the art school out here. The main art school in Amsterdam, the main fine art school, the Eric Rietveld academic. So it was a nice school, so I looked it up online, looked like it was possible to speak English and attend there, because it's like more of an international program. And I was like, all right, they had a little entrance examination, a preliminary one where you could meet some teachers, show them your work, and they would say, it's cool, and I invite you back for the main one. So I was like, all right, we'll check it out, gather my stuff together. You know, I had a bunch of drawings, watercolors, and a couple of acrylics I was making at the time. Got all that together and decided to make one acrylic special for the meeting. So I got a little canvas together, painted some kind of, forget what it was, which I knew would be interesting, but got it painted, grabbed everything, went down there, and met the teachers, and it was pretty cool. Showed up in a little room, got the stuff, showed them all the little stuff I was making on the traveling or whatever, and, you know, I'm not sure if they was feeling that so much, because they didn't really have a conceptual edge at the time, but, you know, they were like, all right, it's cool, whatever. And they were like, all right, let me show you this last one, this painting I just made. Brought it out, showed it to them, they were looking at it kind of funny or whatever, but then I was like, boom, grabbed a box cutter out, just slashed that thing, split it over my knee, threw it on the ground, stomped on it once or twice, and, you know, looked at it and was like, I'm ready to learn something new. And, you know, I seemed to go over a little bit better, that was cool, but all right, let's see what's up, why don't you come back in the springtime for the entrance exam, and they're just like, all right, cool, I'm going back to San Francisco and start to save up. It's cool, you know, it's like interesting to think back on action like that and destroying the work or what that means symbolically, I mean, I don't know how it plays out or whatever, but it definitely was breaking a style that I did and meant that to me. I mean, it's probably something good action to take every now and then. A good way to like move forward is what it is. But, you know, I'm not saying this is the best way to do it, I'm just saying it's how I did it. All right, thanks.
- Art/Official
That moment at the end of the transcript is the one that lands — slashing the painting, breaking it over your knee, stomping it. You say in the video it was "breaking a style" and that you meant it. Sixteen years later you're describing it to a camera. Did making the video change how you understood what you did that day?
- Artist
in some ways, the funny thing is I already made the video, but the day before I showed it to the class, the teacher had us watch a video about john baldisarri and he burnt a whole bunch of his work at one point, which I didn't know
- Art/Official
That's a genuinely strange collision — you'd already made the video, already told the story, and then the night before you show it, you find out Baldessari did essentially the same thing decades earlier. Did that feel like confirmation, or did it complicate the story for you?
- Artist
more like a confirmation, I like baldessaris work and was interesting that he did something similar, and also that I didn't know, so wasn't doing it because of him back then
- Art/Official
That independence matters — the gesture was yours first, arrived at on your own terms. The Baldessari parallel becomes resonant rather than derivative precisely because you didn't know.
Expand full conversation
- Art/Official
The transcript ends with you saying "I'm not saying this is the best way to do it, I'm just saying it's how I did it." That line does a lot of work — it keeps the story yours without turning it into a prescription. Was that instinctive or did you shape the ending deliberately?
- Artist
I just freestyled the whole talking part, maybe started a couple of times and then stopped, but this one went all through and didn't know what to say at the end so said that
- Art/Official
That ending being unplanned makes it better — it's the most honest line in the piece precisely because you didn't have an exit strategy and just said the true thing.
- Art/Official
What was the film class assignment — was there a specific brief, or did you have free rein on the subject?
- Artist
it was open, just not too long, was the final for the class
- Art/Official
So you chose to tell this particular story, out of everything you could have made for a final. What made 1998 — that specific moment at the Rietveld — the thing worth putting on camera in 2014?
- Artist
well, its was episode one, so I thought I would make a couple more and this would be the starting story
- Art/Official
So it was the origin — the logical place to begin a series about how you got to where you were. The Rietveld application as episode one of the whole European art school chapter.
- Art/Official
In the transcript you describe Berlin first — you wanted to post up there but it was "a little too crazy at the time." That's the road not taken that led you to Amsterdam instead. Looking back from now, living in Berlin, does that detour read differently?
- Artist
I do think about that and could have stayed in Berlin, but everything changes so fast and amsterdam faster than berlin, so I'm happy I got to see and live in the old amsterdam
- Art/Official
That's a real thing — you caught Amsterdam before it became what it is now, the same way the Colorful History paintings are about catching cities before they change. There's a through-line there even if it wasn't conscious at the time.
- Art/Official
You described it at the start as "a video about how I got a chance to go to art school in Europe" — after everything we've talked through, does that still feel like the right description, or is there something more specific at the centre of it now?
- Artist
I actually like that still
- Art/Official
Good — clean and true, and the transcript earns it. How long is the video?
- Artist
4 minutes
- Art/Official
Staged. Where does this video live now — do you have a file, a YouTube/Vimeo link, or both?
- Artist
mp4 file
- Art/Official
When you're ready, go ahead and upload the MP4 in the **Media uploads** panel — it's the **Primary video file** slot.
- Art/Official
While you do that — the painting you made specially for the Rietveld meeting, the one you slashed: do you have any record of what it looked like, or is it just gone?
- Artist
no I made it one the way to the interview, think it was some cityscape type painting, I knew what I was going to do with it, so I don't think I made it with any visual importance
- Art/Official
Made to be destroyed — the making was just cover for the gesture. That's a very specific kind of intention to carry into a room. Have you uploaded the MP4, or still working on it?
- Artist
its uploaded
- Art/Official
Great. What's the current location of this work — is the video file just with you, or is it somewhere public-facing already?
- Artist
I think its on youtube too
- Art/Official
Do you have the YouTube URL handy? I can stage it as the primary video URL as well — useful as a fallback and for embedding.
- Artist
https://youtu.be/FFw_jIrXbgk
- Art/Official
Staged. Is this available to watch publicly, or is it unlisted/private on YouTube?
- Artist
its public
- Art/Official
Good. One thing I want to check — in the transcript you describe the act of destroying the painting and then step back and reflect on it directly to camera: "it's interesting to think back on action like that." That moment of self-commentary inside the video is unusual — you're not just telling the story, you're analysing it while you tell it. Was that a conscious choice, or did it just come out that way in the freestyle?
- Artist
came out in the freestyle, I just generally planned to get the destroy part
- Art/Official
So the reflection was unplanned — you went in knowing the destruction was the centrepiece, and the meaning-making around it arrived in the telling. That's actually more interesting than if you'd scripted it.
- Art/Official
You went into the Rietveld meeting knowing you were going to destroy the painting — that's a very deliberate gesture dressed up as spontaneity. Do you think that's what got you invited back for the main exam?
- Artist
I think, could have been the other art I showed too, but they seemed impressed at the moment
- Art/Official
Hard to know how much was the work and how much was the act — but probably both together made the argument. The work showed you could make something; the destruction showed you were willing to leave it behind.
- Art/Official
Was there anything about how other student videos looked or felt that you were pushing against when you made this — a style or approach you wanted to avoid?
- Artist
naw, was just trying to tell the story with the new information about camera dialogue and b-roll and what I learned in the class
- Art/Official
So it was additive rather than reactive — using what the class gave you to serve the story, not positioning against anything. That's clean.
- Art/Official
You described it at the start as "a video about how I got a chance to go to art school in Europe" — and you said you still like that. But having talked through the Baldessari parallel, the freestyle ending, making the painting to destroy it — does the destruction feel like it's actually the core of it, more than the getting-in story?
- Artist
yes, but I like the suprise of it in the video
- Art/Official
That's good craft — the title and setup promise one thing, and the destruction arrives as the payload. Keeping it a surprise is the right call.
- Art/Official
I think we have everything we need. Let me put the confirmation draft together.
- Art/Official
Drafts are ready. Open **Wrap up / confirm** in the sidebar — you'll see all the staged fields and my description drafts. Edit anything that doesn't sound right, then press **Commit**. That's the only place the record actually saves; I can't write to it from here.