Banana

Last week the art world was shaken by a ducttaped and eaten banana. The most expensive banana in the world. Hopefully it was an organic one, I thought. Especially in the banana industry massive use of chemicals is normal. Very bad for the health of the workers of the plantations. For them infertility, birth deficiencies, stomach problems and skin cancer as well as diseases of nose, eyes and fingernails are very common. And there is another side. Dutch fashion student Merel Engelman made work for a school project in 2013. ‘We had to make a look-book and I wanted to create an aesthetic image where trashy and high-end would meet. I made up the image of a banana taped with ducttape on a marble background.’ The bizarre game of money and power and status that I hate and detest; making a an image, the banana, marble, ducttape; being young and therefore worthless and unprotected; being unknown and just a tool and therefore worthless and unprotected; being famous so every fart you produce is worth loads of money… Art unveils all of these layers, makes them visible. Meanwhile I continue making my work, that does not roar and still is Real Art.