"Blogging" the Spot Challenge

Three more to go...

I'd first learned of the Challenge through a Gagosian announcement on Facebook.  Visit all eleven Gagosian galleries in eight cities to see the complete Hirst spot paintings, and receive a personally dedicated print from Hirst.  

Having now visited eight of eleven galleries, I decided to blog about my experience.  So strictly speaking, this is not a blog.  I'll be filling in most of this retrospectively.  Perhaps my decision to blog is another nail in the coffin for the "Death of the Cyberflâneur."  Seventeen have already completed the challenge, with the first two being a crypto-socialite and a tech journalist.  So it seems a bit more fun now to write about the challenge than to worry about publicity. 

The Challenge was instantly appealing, as I am no stranger to flying to see art exhibitions or a historic reunification of a Yuan dynasty scroll.  And coincidentally, I had already planned to be in London to see the Leonardo exhibition at the National Gallery over the Jan 14-15 weekend, and it's easy for me to cover the New York galleries as I am a New Yorker. 

I planned the following trips for the Spot Challenge. 

1. I extended my Jan 14-15 trip through Jan 16, which is Martin Luther King day, a US holiday, to cover London, Paris and Geneva.

2. Chinese New Year fell on Monday Jan 23. My parents decided to spend their new year in Kuala Lumpur. So this provided me with an excuse to spend Chinese New Year with my parents there after a quick stop in Hong Kong.

3. I flew to Los Angeles on Jan 28 for the Beverly Hills gallery. 

4. Feb 20 is another US holiday (Presidents Day). I'd cover Rome and Athens that long weekend. 

I sought to minimize disruptions to work, so this plan required just two days off work.  I took Friday Jan 20 and Monday Jan 23 off and was back in the city on the night of Chinese New Year.