WTF!
The 6 Million Dollar Banana
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Musings on the byways of popular culture
Musings on the byways of popular culture
by 35 Comments
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I’ve got one of them next to my bed for emergency provisions. I’m rich!!
What kind of emergency are we talking about?
You really don’t want to know
@spider-mans-arch-enemy
Potassium rich!
Two things of note. 1: congrats to the BBC for spelling “duct-tape” correctly*, not “duck-tape”. 2: ever wondered where your crypto-investments went?
(*) see also “Gaffa tape” vs “Gaffer tape”.
I understand that techies at the BBC refer to a pre-recorded laugh track as ‘A Guffaw Tape’*.
*They don’t.
It’s bionic!
Also: There we were, back in the day, thinking Nathan Barley was satire.
I saw the result of this auction first thing this morning and laughed myself hoarse. I love it when artists take the piss out of rich folk. It always gives me and I would imagine every other artist enormous pleasure.
That’s good to hear from an artist. I’m surprised the buyer is planning to eat the banana though. Shouldn’t he let it go brown and over ripe symbolising the upcoming decay and death of Western society or some shit?
But I suppose he can always replace it for 35 cents, or will that make the artwork worthless?
A few years ago the first piece on display in the main marquee at one of the Frieze art fairs was a huge image of a dollar bill. It couldn’t be a more blatant piss take but the punters still didn’t get it. One of the halfwits bought it of course. Hilarious.
“Decay and death”, there was this from Yoko.
https://publicdelivery.org/yoko-ono-apple/
Artists laughing at the buyer? Maybe.
But what if a buyer was using the Art Market to launder money?
Then it would be the (much richer) buyer laughing, surely?
Best way to do it. Either the Art Market or a Premier League football club.
No maybe about it. Yes the art market is corrupt. A lot of things are.
Nail bars are a surprisingly effective way of scrubbing the dirt off illicit funds.
See also Phone Accessory and “Repair” shops
“repair” – which usually means “no, I can’t make it work . Have you tired the Apple/Samsung shop”
See also Turkish Barbers. There’s about ten of them within a mile of me. There can’t be that much hair in the entire neighbourhood.
Car Washes too.
@pencilsqueezer
Maurizio Cattelana is a genius – his kneeling Hitler statue from a few years back is absolutely priceless in both senses of the word
Yes he certainly is I love The Ninth Hour and Perfect Day another of his duct tape pieces is hilarious. America is of course perfection.
I made a comment some time ago about Peter Blake and Jann Howarth possibly “making the most” out the Sgt Pepper album cover brief. That is to say, their clients were young men with almost limitless wealth, so insisting on lifesize cardboard cutouts rather than a quicker and cheaper collage, just using photographs, would have ramped up the cost considerably.
It did work though. The image has become (sorry about this) iconic, so worth every penny.
My next thought is this – in 1967 the Beatles were still pretty young and had been in the limelight for about 5 years. Did anyone at the time think they were a little bit arrogant for placing themselves, twice, among that group of people? Looking back, of course they deserve to be there…but was that true in 1967?
At the time, it would have been like the Spice Girls doing this in 2001. Or Take That in 1996.
I just feel the waxworks were there to show how far they had changed from their early days.
I reckon this installation in my kitchen could be worth millions. I’m open to offers.
Marcel Duchamp was doing this kind of stuff more than a hundred years ago. Hard to see the apeel anymore.
As Paul Valery said: “Everything changes but the Avant Garde”.
Don’t see the problem here (except the rich should pay a ton more tax) – “It comes with a certificate of authenticity and installation instructions for owners to replace the banana — if they wish — whenever it rots.”
I think that this a banana broken in two in a terrible accident and then rebuilt to be stronger than before with duct tape. Surprisingly not renewed for a second series. Lee Majors portrayal of the banana deservedly won many awards.
Not Eric Banana, disappointingly.
Nor Doctor David Banana … just don’t make him angry
👍
Not even Canaan Sodindo Banana
Banana Mouskouri?
Sha Na Banana Na?
Nick Hall from Plumhall has posted that he is looking to sell* a guitar and has significantly increased the value.
* not really
Sotheby’s needed this to do well, they have mastered the art of how to bring a venerable old firm to its knees. But still – they have been seeing steady rise in tech bros buying NFT, game worn sneakers and NBA jerseys etc while the mid market (see the rest of their evening sale, very patchy results) The banana is a colossal meme, as instantly recognisable as the Mona Lisa worldwide, guaranteed to epater le bourgeoise and generate thousands of column inches, revive the old “is this art” palaver and in due course, will be back on the market, having accrued more outraged column inches and outrage in the meantime!
The buyer has now completed the cycle, and eaten it!
https://amp.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/may/01/banana-drama-hungry-south-korean-student-eats-120000-artwork