Anything goes as art - will you eat a banana with duct tape?

Anything goes…

Or else how come a banana stuck to the wall by duct tape be valued at $ 6.2 Mio as a piece of art?

Well, perhaps that exactly is the point. It is a kind of circular logic. A banana with duct tape makes no sense at all. But the very fact that one after the other auctions are raising the price of the peculiar object to an astronomical level is sending a message to the world.

The entire phenomenon is a smirk at the way we look at things in the modern world. We hardly bother about the real worth of things we wish to acquire. We run after things that others are running after.

I remember a prank we used to play in our school days. One of us would stand by the window and look at the sky with an anxious face. In a while half of the class would gather around him and stare at the sky.

Then someone would ask, ‘What are we looking at?’

Another would answer, ‘I don’t know, He knows.’

That way, all the boys would realize that there was nothing in the first place. They were fooled.

Sadly, in today’s world, that game is played on grownups. As young kids, we could shrug off the illusion and move to the next fun but as grown ups with ego, moving on is impossible. It is an illusion, but it is my own illusion after all. Let it stay for good.

The banana with duct tape is an embodiment of such insane fancy for whatever is fancied by others. The worth is forgotten soon. The halo around the void is embraced.

I must say that as a conceptual art, it is a good one. But is it original? Does it not ring a bell of Marcel Duchamp’s inverted urinal of 1917? The first conceptual art in history.

Since then, the idea of presenting a readymade unassuming object as an art-piece became a rule. And every time there is a shock. In fact, shock element turned into the only element qualifying anything as art.

This time (also before), to intensify the shock element, the buyer ate the banana before the audience. It was as if he ate $ 6.2 Mio in a few bites. But hold on. He is not the first one to eat that. Even in the past someone ate the banana. I mean another banana after auction.

The question is, how many times can we be shocked and surprised by the same stunt?

I guess, being shocked also turned into a habit. After all, it makes sense to be in awe when there is $ 6.2 Mio involved. We are not kids, you see. We are grownups. We believe in lies. After all, a bunch of lies make a truth.