Episode 86: Weird Era feat. Walter Scott

Weird Era

About Walter Scott:

Walter Scott is an interdisciplinary artist working in comics, drawing, video, performance, and sculpture. His graphic novel series Wendy chronicles the continuing misadventures of a young artist in a satirical imagining of the contemporary art world. Scott's eponymous party girl has previously been featured in three graphic novels Wendy; Wendy's Revenge and Wendy: Master of Art as well as in Canadian Art; Art in America; The New Yorker; The New York Times and MoMA Magazine. Scott has been nominated or longlisted for the Ignatz Awards, Canada Reads, the Believer Book Award, and the Doug Wright Award, and finally, the Sobey Art Award—considered to be the preeminent fine art award in Canada.

About The Wendy Award:

Everybody’s favorite party girl Wendy is so back

When Wendy is nominated for the coveted National FoodHut Contemporary Art Prize alongside her friend Winona, all of her millennial dreams seem to be coming true. She lives a post-pandemic, polyamorous fine artist’s lifestyle in the big city and basks in the glory of national attention with the success of her popular comic strip, “Wanda."

But not even achieving bona fide art star fame can hide the truth: a never-ending struggle with imposter syndrome. After she cracks in an online interview and gets dragged in the comments section, she heads straight to a local watering hole to drown her sorrows. Several lines of coke, too many drinks, and one all night rager with fans later, Wendy is ready to curse Gen Z and confront her addictions. All the while, she and Winona drift apart as a younger Indigenous artist wedges herself between them. Will Wendy’s commitment to change wind up short-lived?

The Wendy Award incisively skewers the art world with its corporate overlords, performative activism, generational wealth, and weaponized therapy speak. A showcase of Walter Scott’s deft wit and social commentary, The Wendy Award asks the hard questions, like Do they still give awards to men? Should we be grateful for the exposure? And what exactly is Big Auntie Energy?