Hello, my name is Nicole Fairey and although I am from New Zealand I am now living full time in the UK and studying Law at UoY. I am an art nerd, world-traveller, full-time mum, and my favourite food is bananas. I also have a Bachelor of Arts in Art History, English Literature, and History which in a past life fuelled my decision to open my own art gallery in my Kiwi hometown.
My friend and I were frustrated with the local art scene. Creators who weren’t making oil paintings of farmland were being pushing into selling their wares at local markets or through Instagram. We wanted to create an inclusive space that bridged the chasm between academic high art and hobbyist crafts; between commercially appealing and ideologically challenging; between what people were used to seeing and what people didn’t know they were missing. We opened a gallery passionate about the democratisation of the art world.
In 2019 the coveted Turner Prize was awarded collectively to all four short-listed artists after a joint letter was written by them to the judges requesting this outcome. Notably, all four artists had a strong political and/or social commentary element to the meaning of their works and collectively agreed that awarding a single artist out of the group would only add to the divisions in a world they are trying to unite. It was acknowledged that art on one kind of political issue cannot be awarded higher status than another if the message behind the works are intrinsic to the works themselves.
Here, Shani, Cammock, Murillo and Hamdan declared that it really didn’t matter whose art the judging panel decided to be ‘best’; it only matters that their messages had been heard. Yet, it is a question asked by people inside and outside the art world; What is good art and who gets to decide? Most recently at the centre of ‘good art’ controversy was Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian exhibited at Art Basel Miami. As is inevitable in the internet age banana memes took over social media for a solid 72 hours after Cattelan’s piece was sold for $120,000USD. While those with some art knowledge may make immediate connections to the work of Duchamp and other humorous conceptual artists, for much of the public a banana taped to the wall definitely falls into the art-category of ‘things my five-year-old could have made.’
That is perhaps the beauty of Cattelan’s work, its absurdity. For the buyers of Comedian the purchase is not of a rotten piece of fruit and some duct tape - it is the concept and the only tangible aspect is a certificate authentiating the purchase. The art isn’t the banana on a wall as much as it is the ridiculousness of a banana taped to an exhibition wall at one of the world’s most prestigious art shows that sells for over half a million pounds. It is absurd. It is also fun. If no one laughs, or indeed turns it into a meme, then it just becomes wasteful.
Andy Warhol is quoted as saying, ‘Art is what you can get away with.’ Over the last century Warhol has become one of those few names who the public outside the art world would recognise. Love or hate his works they had an impact and his style has permeated through mainstream culture for decades.
If only the ever-quotable figure that is Andy could see his work now printed on everything from soft home furnishings to pencil cases. Tiny Warhol banana keychains can be purchased from souvenir stands on the corners of Manhattan streets - decades after his star-studded factory has disappeared. Mass produced art can be churned out and sold at the lowest prices ever with the internet housing stores without rent and easy avenues to avoid fees. For the democratisation of art the internet has opened a world Andy could barely dream of in his urban studio; the downside of course is what Andy did predict - ‘In the future, everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes.’ While canvases of soup cans and silhouettes of Marilyn Monroe still adorn teenage bedrooms in 2020, in half a century can we imagine the Basel Banana being held in any regard, if remembered at all?
Written by Nicole Fairey
We warmly welcome Nicole to the Norman Rea's Blog team!
If you are interested in writing for our blog email our editor Rosie Day at editor.normanrea@gmail.com