An artwork made for Dark MoFo and displayed on the outside of the Tasmanian College of the Arts has been pulled from view after complaints from students.

The work is part of Brainstorm, a series of works by nine Tasmanian artists, and the reaction to his piece caught the artist Scot Cotterell off guard.

"The title of the work is Shitstorm," he told Ryk Goddard on 936 ABC Hobart.

"So obviously on some level I anticipated that there would be a reaction, but what surprised me primarily is that the reaction wasn't from the public at all.

"This was primarily multiple student reactions dealt with in different ways from altering the work to starting petitions."

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Cotterell's work was 74 corflute panels in the windows of the college's building in Hunter Street with bright rainbow colours and the words "Your Work Is Shit" repeated around the building.

It went on display at the opening of Dark Park on Friday night and two days later it was pulled from view.

"It was almost a positive-negative message to everyone," Cotterell said.

"It didn't discriminate. Everyone's work is shit, including my own."

Cotterell said the brief for the works as part of Brainstorm was to create art on the theme of "storm" and to "think outside the box and push the limit a bit".

"Obviously the curator was aware, and risk assessors and insurance valuers were aware [of the words]," he said.

"But the entire school community was not aware.

"I did consider the institutional duty of care in a relationship like that."

Artwork moved to gallery

The 74 panels have been pulled from the outside of the building, with 20 panels moved into the Plimsoll Gallery with a warning sign to the public.

"We had to make a very swift decision," Cotterell said.

"Now there's a small A4 sign that warns people so they're safe."

Cotterell said he found the reaction from other art students interesting.

"It was a combined student kind of institution edit rather than any kind of public outcry," he said.

"So the fact that it kind of ate itself from the inside is kind of interesting."

Art expected to provoke a reaction

The curator of Brainstorm, John Vella, said in a statement the aim of the exhibition was that the art created would invoke reactions.

"There was a very positive response to the boldness and power of the idea, evidenced by strong ongoing interest in the work on social media and elsewhere, but also concerns about the language," the statement read.

"As is standard practice, this caused us to reflect and it was agreed with the artist that the work be re-sited to its current location in the Plimsoll Gallery, which allows us to warn viewers about the nature of the content.

"This episode is testament to the capacity for art, driven by strong, individual creative voices, to challenge, provoke and inspire."

Shitstorm can be seen in its smaller form, with content warning, at the Plimsoll Gallery in the Tasmanian College of the Arts.