Stockholm university

The value of a banana: understanding absurd and ephemeral artwork

What makes something a high-priced artwork when another, seemingly identical, object is not? Sara Callahan discusses artworks and the structures in which it operates in a new article in The Conversation.

Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian. EPA/EFE. Article in The Conversation
Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian. EPA/EFE. Illustration from the article in The Conversation


The article is published on October 8 and is written by Sara Callahan, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Culture and Aesthetics, Stockholm University.

She writes:

“In September, the Guggenheim Museum in New York acquired Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian by anonymous donation. The work – a banana duct-taped to a wall — was first shown and sold at the Art Basel fair in Miami Beach in the autumn of 2019 where it generated attention, derision and innumerable memes.

Social media was, for a brief time, overflowing with images of just about anything duct-taped to walls: tamales, beer cans, cabbage, a durian fruit, a sandal, someone’s cat. Companies quickly countered with online ads where their products, from deodorants to French fries, were shown duct-taped to the wall with a modest price tag.

Comedian reignited a set of questions that seem to flare up with some regularity: what makes something a high-priced artwork when another, seemingly identical, object is not? “

Read the article published in The Conversation:  https://theconversation.com/the-value-of-a-banana-understanding-absurd-and-ephemeral-artwork-147689

Read more about the collaboration between Stockholm University and The Conversation and how to pitch an article idea: https://www.su.se/staff/services/information-communication/pitch-an-article-idea-for-the-conversation-1.462268

More articles in The Conversation by researchers at Stockholm University: https://theconversation.com/institutions/stockholm-university-1019

 

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