An Australian artist has really brought the phrase 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder' to life with his latest piece.
Sydney-based Australian artist Matthew Griffin grabbed the pickle from a McDonald's cheeseburger and threw it onto the roof.
Let us be clear: an act that some people do every time they get a burger from Macca's is now considered art.
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And it's not going cheap either.
Griffin has installed his 'artwork', which is titled Pickle, at Auckland's Michael Lett Gallery as part of the Fine Arts, Sydney exhibition.
Ryan Moore, the director of Fine Arts said (via The Guardian): “A humorous response to the work is not invalid – it’s OK, because it is funny."
You would be correct in stating that it's funny. However, the AUD$9,000 price tag for the piece would stop those chuckles immediately.
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People attending the exhibition in New Zealand will be greeted to Griffin's pickle that is literally stuck to the roof of the gallery and covered in a type of sauce.
Moore added: "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.”
What's even more hilarious is that the sucker who ends up buying this artwork won't even get to take it home.
If you or a collector wants to fork out the nine grand for the piece then you'll get 'instructions' on how to recreate the vision in you very own home.
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I genuinely wish I was kidding.
Moore said: "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 on to the ceiling.
“The gesture is so pure, so joyful...that is what makes it so good.”
Apparently the work has been getting some curious looks since it was installed and it's sparked a conversation again about 'what is art?'
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Michael Lett Gallery co-director, Andrew Thomas, said it's helping people 'think broadly about the various ideas it encapsulates'.
Yes, indeed.
Stewart Perrie