As soon as you’ve dismissed the whole art gallery scene as one of nose-in-the-air pretentiousness, comes a witty and charming week-long show Tantamounter 24/7 (closing today) in New York by the Vienna-based artist collective Gelitin. The gallery contains a wooden box, the size of a small house. In one end of the box you put an object – any object: a photograph, a tape-recorder, a 2-year-old child (!!) – you wait for anywhere from a few minutes to over an hour; whereupon your object is returned to you, along with a hand-made facsimile (that you get to keep) made out of various art supplies, found objects, or even trash. You never actually see the six people involved (who lived and slaved away in the box 24/7 for the whole week).
For a much better description, and pics, read the New York Times article.
I read about this in the Skeptical National Inquirer.
How do they know it was six people?
It could have been demons or Jesus or Japanese robot dogs!
But seriously, check out the article but don’t miss the slide show; it communicates the vibe much, much better than the words.
While not forgoing my right to dismiss art, artists and artichokes as weak and evil, that sounds really cool. I wish I had found out in time to see it, and have a duplicate of myself made to intimidate people with.
-Andy