Around the Bluhmin’ Town

By

Judy Bluhm

Do you have an extra six million bucks lying around? Perhaps you are looking for the perfect Christmas gift? How about spending 6.2 million on “conceptual art.” Like one banana and duct tape (to hang it on a wall). Just when we think we’ve heard everything, a very wealthy entrepreneur buys the “banana art” from a New York auction. Then eats it. There is a back story. Read on.

A few years ago, Maurizio Cattelan gave considerable thought to an art object he would be creating and displaying at Miami’s Art Basel. He wanted to do something with a banana, the glorious yellow fruit that we all love to eat. Over 100 billion bananas are consumed every year in the world! In honor of this beloved fruit, the artist wanted to create something “special.”

So, he took a ripe banana, wrapped some duct tape around it and stuck it on the wall of a gallery. He named it “Comedian.” Oh yeah, and this is one of three editions. Price? A mere $120,000. You read that right. A thirty-cent banana stuck to the wall with duct tape sells immediately for 120,000 bucks! And his second and third editions also pulled in the same sort of dough. Yikes, who finds this a-peeling?

Of course, it gets even stranger. A performance artist named David Datuma, grabbed the banana off the wall and ate it! Claiming he was ravishingly hungry, people gasped in horror watching him devour the “masterpiece.” The police were called (no arrests were made). It appears that everyone in the Miami art scene lost their collective minds that day.

The gallery released a statement, saying that, “Cattelan’s work is not just about objects, but how objects move through the world.” Maybe moving through one’s stomach is a better way of saying this. The “art work” comes with a certificate of authenticity, and the gallery claims that when the banana was eaten, the art was not destroyed. It is the banana that is simply the concept (stupid). And worth big bucks. Genius.

Okay, fast forward and last week the viral “banana masterpiece” called the “Comedian,” sold at auction to a man named Justin Sun. So, a banana, piece of duct tape and “installation instructions” were delivered to him. You know, it takes directions (for an idiot) to know how to hang a banana on a wall. But wait! Justin Sun ate the banana, because he was hungry. And that, Dear Readers, is one way to spend six million Big Ones.

This is called “provocation sculptural intervention,” according to the artist and his agent. They also said that the fact that it was so tempting to eat shows the true compelling nature of the “authenticity” of the art. Evidently art is in the mind, eyes, and wallet of the beholder. It is capitalism and who can blame an artist for fetching a (ridiculously) high price. Wish I had thought of it.

I am making red Chile tamales with my daughter for Christmas Eve. Need some “delicious art?” Starting bids for one tamale and duct tape is one thousand dollars. No low-ball offers, please. I know what I have.

Judy Bluhm is a writer and local realtor. Contact Judy at [email protected] or at www.aroundthebluhmintown.com.