Conspicuous Banana Consumption

The world has real problems. $6.2 million will not solve them, but it certainly could help some people. But people with an extra $6.2 million are more inclined to buy bananas. Well, one banana. One perfectly ordinary banana purchased earlier in the day for 35 cents and attached to a wall with duct tape.

Image by DALL-E

No, I am not typing word salad. I am just passing on reporting that Jaroslav Lukiv published on BBC News. Sotheby’s sold what has been described as “Maurizio Cattelan’s provocative artwork of a banana duct-taped to a wall” at auction for $6.2 million. The purchaser is Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun, who plans to eat the banana.  The banana exhibit has gained some attention. The banana at the center of the exhibit has been eaten and stolen on occasion. It is then replaced with .  . . another banana.

If this tells us anything about art that we didn’t learn from R. Mutt’s exhibit over a hundred years ago, I don’t know what it is. I have in the past expressed my skepticism about conceptual art on this blog. It is not that I am hostile to the notion that conceptual art can provide profound commentaries on society, jolting us out of our mundane preoccupations and confronting us with the absurdities, the evanescence, the utter vacuity or destructive force, etc. of modern society. I only demand that the conceptual art be interesting and inventive and have some unique point. I think Banksy accomplished that with his  delightfully performative shredded painting, although the point was lost when the shredding only enhanced the value of the painting. The “take the money and run” gambit had the performative virtue of breach of contract as art form. I think less of invisible sculptures accompanied by self-indulgent, self-aggrandizing monologues or vapid videos that are supposed to be atmospheric.

Mr. Sun explains that eating the banana will be a “unique artistic experience.” Perhaps. Or perhaps he his experience will be less elevated, more akin to eating a banana. After all, the art is not the banana; it is the banana attached to the wall with duct tape and then exhibited and sold at auction.  Perhaps Mr. Sun’s ultimate consumption of the banana is also part of the exhibit. I would be interested in knowing his views on the matter. The point of the art would seem to be more sociological than aesthetic. Perhaps we need Mr. Sun’s input to complete our understanding. Or perhaps his function is not addition but only subtraction.