An artist is selling an unusual ‘sculpture’ in the form of a pickled gherkin slice taken from a McDonald’s cheeseburger that has been flung onto the ceiling where it's being held on by the burger’s sauce.
And if this is art, there was a kid in my class in year seven who could have been the next Picasso.
Australian artist Matthew Griffin has an exhibition at The Michael Lett Gallery in Auckland, New Zealand until Saturday, where the piece is one of the works on display.
The artwork is - somewhat unimaginatively - named Pickle and is up for sale for NZ$10,000 (£5,179/US$6,302).
Now, if you’re reading this and think the whole things sounds like a bit of a p**s take, then that’s good because the artist’s representative admits that the piece is funny.
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Ryan Moore, the director of Fine Arts, Sydney, which represents Griffin, told the Guardian: “A humorous response to the work is not invalid – it’s OK, because it is funny.”
He went on to say that Griffin’s work raises questions about ‘the way value and meaning is generated between people’ - personally, I love a gherkin, but I’m not sure I’d be happy to part with five grand for one, especially when you can get a whole Maccies’ cheeseburger for £1.19.
But philistines such as myself, don’t concern Moore who went on to say that he’s not bothered about whether the piece can truly be considered art or not.
He said: “Generally speaking, artists aren’t the ones deciding whether something is art is not – they are the ones who make and do things. Whether something is valuable and meaningful as artwork is the way that we collectively, as a society choose to use it or talk about it.
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“As much as this looks like a pickle attached to the ceiling – and there is no artifice there, that is exactly what it is – there is something in the encounter with that as a sculpture or a sculptural gesture.”
If the piece is sold, the pickle-fan will be given instructions on how to recreate the piece at home - although I can’t imagine you’d need a degree in engineering to work it out.
Moore added: “It’s not about the virtuosity of the artist standing there in the gallery throwing it to the ceiling – how it gets there doesn’t matter, as long as someone takes it out of the burger and flicks it onto the ceiling.
“The gesture is so pure, so joyful. That is what makes it so good.”
Claire Reid