The buyer of the artwork will be instructed to recreate it in their own space.
A bizarre artwork consisting of a single piece of pickle plucked from a McDonald’s cheeseburger and slammed onto the ceiling of a New Zealand art gallery has gone viral on the internet. The work, simply titled “Pickle”, is by Australian artist Matthew Griffin, who is selling the artwork for a whopping NZ$10,000 (Rs 4.93 lakh).
“Pickle” is on display at the Michael Lett Gallery and it is one of four new works in Sydney’s Fine Arts exhibition in Auckland. The photo of the artwork shared on Instagram shows the pickle clinging to the ceiling with nothing but the assorted sauces and the inherent stickiness with which it was served.
View the artwork below:
“Matthew Griffin, ‘Pickle’, 2022 is a sculpture consisting of the slice of pickle from a McDonald’s cheeseburger slammed onto the ceiling,” reads the post’s caption.
Since it was shared, the image has left the internet stunned. While some called it “genius” and “brilliant”, others called it “idiotic”. One user wrote: “This is the best thing I’ve ever seen.” Another added: “stupid and useless … art is dead.” “Part of a rich nighttime tradition,” said the third. A fourth said jokingly: “When I was a teenager I was thrown out of a McDonald’s by the police, now it’s art.”
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Speak with the guardRyan Moore, Sydney’s Director of Fine Arts, who represents Mr Griffin, said: “A humorous response to work isn’t invalid – it’s okay, because it’s funny.” He added that the artwork raises questions about “the way value and meaning is generated between people”. Mr Moore also said he is not concerned about the inevitable question of whether Pickle is “art”.
“In general, it’s not artists who decide if something isn’t art – they’re the ones who make and do things. Whether something is valuable and meaningful as a work of art is how we collectively, as a society, choose to use it or talk about it,” Moore told the outlet.
“As much as this looks like a pickle attached to the ceiling — and there’s no artifice, that’s exactly what it is — there’s something about the encounter with it like a sculpture or a sculptural gesture,” he added.
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From Today, the artwork carries a price tag of NZ$10,000 and costs the buyer an additional NZ$4.44 for a cheeseburger. The person who purchases it will also receive instructions on how to recreate the art in their own space.
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