The art world is a strange place. It’s often more about personality than talent, and once someone has made it, they’re faced with two options.

The first is to keep on making interesting, socially conscious art.

The second is to call everyone’s bluff and tape a banana to a wall instead of putting effort into a real exhibition.

Once you’ve taped the banana to the wall, you can sit back and let the critics do the rest. They won’t want to look like they don’t know what’s going on, so they’ll do the work of making your slowly rotting banana relevant for you.

I’m talking, of course, about the banana that you see in the image above. It’s the latest ‘installation’ by famous Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. You might be familiar with the gold toilet he made a while back.

According to Sky News, the banana, which comes in three editions, is part of the Art Basel Miami Beach exhibition happening this week.

A spokeswoman for Art Basel Miami Beach told Sky News: “After a 15-year hiatus, Maurizio has returned to the international art fair, and we are so fortunate to collaborate with him.

“The banana is many things – a symbol of global trade, a witty double entendre, and a classic device for humour.

“Maurizio takes mundane objects and transforms them into vehicles of both delight and critique.”

Whatever you need to tell yourself to get you through the night, unnamed ‘spokeswoman’.

The crazy thing is that people really bought into the rotting banana. Literally.

Organisers say two editions of the work, called Comedian, each sold for around $120,000 (£91,000) – and the price of a third edition has now reportedly been raised to $150,000 (£114,000).

That’s over R1,7 million for a piece of fruit and some tape, and the third edition could sell for above R2 million.

Cattelan – who picked the banana for his artwork from a Miami supermarket – has reportedly decided to sell the third edition to a museum, with two institutions already having expressed interest.

He told Artnet he had been working on the idea for about a year and first created versions in bronze and resin.

A likely story. But, please continue:

He said: “Wherever I was travelling I had this banana on the wall. I couldn’t figure out how to finish it.

“In the end, one day I woke up and I said ‘the banana is supposed to be a banana’.”

The gallery is claiming that the artwork is not a joke, and that every element of it was carefully considered, from the shape of the fruit, to the angle its been affixed with duct tape to the wall, to its placement.

‘Comedian’ is apparently sold with a certificate of authenticity and owners can replace the banana as needed.

Stop it.

[source:skynews]