TV show ‘Artland:USA’ to visit Portland

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Victor Leong races against time to build his sandcastle. He has been working for more than four hours and must finish before the sun sets so his creation can be filmed without shadows.

He molds the wet sand in his hands, shapes it into blocks and cuts it with his fingers as if it were clay. After hours of stacking sand in the hot sun, his castle stands over 5 feet tall adorned with seashells, sand staircases, balconies and cannons.

Leong’s sandcastle is for a segment of an art show called “Artland: USA.” The show’s eight-member crew this month kicked off filming the second season in Florida and will cross the country in a Winnebago for eight weeks of filming America’s most offbeat, kitschy art, ending in Alaska in July.

The show’s second season will begin with its Florida episode, which will include interviews about Miami collectors, Art Deco history and local artists. It will air on Voom’s Gallery HD, an arts television network, in October.

Its producers and hosts claim it is the great American road trip – only with art.

“We were trying to come up with an idea that might appeal to the U.S., a road trip that was quintessentially American,” said London resident and show producer Seb Grant. “You look at the sheer breadth of artists. … It’s so visually rich.”

Host Toby Amies, from Brighton, England, and his co-host, Mame McCutchin, a New Yorker, will shoot in more than 50 cities, including Houston, Dallas, Denver, San Francisco and Portland, Maine. They will go into museums as well as interview well-known and local artists.

“I really wanted to do a series on art, but not in New York and Los Angeles,” said executive producer Tamar Hacker. “I wanted something that would be appealing to people who weren’t in those cities.”

In Miami Beach, a four-person crew filmed the Art Deco district, a strip of beachfront property where wearing less is more and the darker the tan, the better. Some of the world’s most famous hotels double as neon night clubs that attract celebrities and tourists.

Although the show’s filming itinerary is planned, most of the dialogue is spontaneous.

“I never want to be so well informed. I try and enter the situation with intelligent ignorance,” said Amies, who likes to buy hats in different cities. He will wear his purchases throughout the show.

Inside the lobby of a small Art Deco-inspired hotel, Amies is wearing his Panama hat, pacing around and thinking of his lines. When the camera starts rolling he looks into it and cracks a joke about a mural painted above the lobby’s fireplace, which he doesn’t like.

“We assessed America to be a place to have a fantastic adventure,” said Amies. “What I would love to happen is for people to see the programs and be inspired to do something themselves.”

Later, while sitting on the front steps of another hotel, Amies ends filming with a question to the camera: “What gives this city the right to be so obsessed with appearances? Could it be Art Deco?” With that, he lifts his arms to the sky.

As the sun begins to set, Leong is ready for his interview with Amies.

“Today was terrible. Today was grueling. This is inspiration versus perspiration,” said Leong, who charges between $1,500 to $2,500 for eight hours of sandcastle building. “It’s hard to get sand to stand.”

After Miami Beach, the crew interviews Katherine Hinds, the curator of the primarily photography, sculpture and installation Martin Z. Margulies collection in downtown Miami.

Hinds said that since the annual international art fair Art Basel Miami Beach began, there has been a lot more focus on art in the city, but it is still underrepresented in the media.

“A program like this piques people’s interest,” Hinds said. “It appeals to both the wide spectrum, those who know a lot about art and those who know nothing.”