“There have been many smiles, closely followed by some interesting and engaged conversations,” said Michael Lett Gallery co-director, Andrew Thomas. Source: Fine Arts Sydney.
On display at the Michael Lett Gallery in Auckland is a McDonald’s pickle smothered in tomato sauce and it’s there completely on purpose.
This latest exhibition piece entitled “pickle” was installed by Australian artist Matthew Griffin after he quite literally took the pickle off a Maccas cheeseburger and flung it onto the ceiling.
Some are in a pickle as to why he decided this would be his latest piece of artwork but Ryan Moore of Fine Arts Sydney, who represents Griffin said that it’s meant to question the value of things.
“Generally speaking, artists aren’t the ones deciding whether something is art is not – they are the ones who make and do things. Whether something is valuable and meaningful as artwork is the way that we collectively, as a society choose to use it or talk about it,” he told The Guardian.
“As much as this looks like a pickle attached to the ceiling – and there is no artifice there, that is exactly what it is – there is something in the encounter with that as a sculpture or a sculptural gesture.”
Art enthusiasts have taken to social media to express their opinion on the pickle.
Some have said it’s “genius” and described it as “brilliant” but others have found humour saying “my kid could have done that” or “so it’s art when you do it but I get asked to leave the restaurant”.
However, humour was expected to come out of such display with Moore saying, “ a humorous response to the work is not invalid- it’s OK, because it is funny”.
The artwork is selling for NZ$10,000 (A$6,200) but does come with a catch because the lucky owner of the pickle will not actually receive the pickle on display but get a list of instructions on how to recreate it.
“It’s not about the virtuosity of the artist standing there in the gallery throwing it to the ceiling,” Moore concluded. “How it gets there doesn’t matter, as long as someone takes it out of the burger and flicks it on to the ceiling,” said Moore.
“The gesture is so pure, so joyful—that is what makes it so good.”
