An Australian artist is charging $6,000 for a pickle he threw on the ceiling of a gallery space last month.
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Matthew Griffin named the piece ‘Pickle’ and the artwork was displayed at the local gallery in Auckland, New Zealand. In the presentation’s medium list, Griffin listed the ingredients of a regular McDonald’s cheeseburger and wrote, “a sculpture comprising the slice of pickle from a McDonald’s cheeseburger flung into the ceiling.” According to TODAY, the piece is intentionally designed to determine what art has value and what doesn’t.
However, Griffin priced the artwork for 10,000 Australian dollars ($6,329 USD) but the exhibition closed on July 30.
“Regular Bun: Wheat Flour (Enzymes), Water, Sugar, Canola Oil, Wheat Gluten, Glaze, Iodised Salt, Yeast, Improver (Wheat Flour, Malted Wheat Flour, Antioxidant (300), Enzymes (Contain Wheat)), Emulsifiers (472e, 471), Preservative (262). Beef Patty: Beef. Cheese: Milk, Salt, Starter Cultures, Enzyme (Rennet — Calves &/or Vegetarian), Water, Milk Solids, Non Fat Milk Solids, Emulsifiers (331, 332), Cheese Flavour, Salt, Acidity Regulators (260, 330), Emulsifier (322 — Soy), Colours (160a). Ketchup: Water, Tomato Paste, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Corn Syrup, Distilled Vinegar, Salt, Natural Flavour (Soybean Oil). Pickles: Gherkins, Water, Acidity Regulator,(260), Salt, Flavour, Firming Agent (509), Preservative (211). Onion: Water, Dehydrated White Onions. Mustard: Water, Distilled Vinegar, Mustard Seed, Salt, Colour (100), Paprika, Natural Flavouring. Beef Patty Seasoning: Salt, Pepper and Sunflower Oil.”
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Other artists used a single house plant accompanied by a speaker playing ambient music in a loop, a sconce lamp, and a sketch of a woman eating a banana. The outlet said the theme of the exhibition related to transience, distance, and time but it is up to the viewer to decide which art piece goes with which them.
If an individual reported “purchased” the pickle art piece, they won’t get the actual pickle but instructions on how to recreate Griffin’s work in their own art space which consists of two steps. His work was compared to the banana taped to the wall in Art Basel Miami.
artist Matthew Griffin has slapped a McDonald’s pickle to the ceiling of a gallery in New Zealand and it is worth a cool $6200, but apparently the buyer won’t then own this actual pickle but will instead be given instructions on how to recreate the artwork with their own pickle🤪 pic.twitter.com/WreioD98pY
— Daisy Dixon (@daisyldixon) July 29, 2022
“Australian artist Matthew Griffin plucked a pickle from a McDonald’s cheeseburger and slapped it to the ceiling of the gallery. The piece is just the size of a quarter but comes with a price tag worth much more: NZ$10,000 ($6,200).” Ad somebody still criticize #NFTs pic.twitter.com/UwdK6SfojH
— luigistranieri.eth (@klunk22) July 29, 2022
His recent work was released three years after the infamous art piece by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan who titled the taped banana “Comedian.” The 2019 piece was sold for $120,000 and he continued to tape more bananas to the wall after they were bought by two art collectors from France.
One of the pieces was even eaten by New York performance artist David Datuna. He wasn’t charged for the stunt.