by Tom Lagasse
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| A Chinese-born cryptocurrency entrepreneur has followed through on his promise to eat the banana from a $6.2m (£4.9m) artwork he bought last week. Justin Sun outbid six others to claim Maurizio Cattelan's infamous 2019 work Comedian - a banana duct-taped to a wall - at Sotheby's auction house in New York. He ate the fruit during a news conference in Hong Kong where he used the moment to draw parallels between the artwork and cryptocurrency. The banana is regularly replaced before exhibitions, with Mr Sun buying the right to display the installation along with a guide on how to replace the fruit. —BBC, November 29, 2024 |
The banana would have eventually rotted
like all organic things do. He untaped it,
unpeeled it and ate it because he owned it.
Of course, the banana and tape were symbols
for the concept behind the work of art,
the way crypto is a concept for money.
He could have stopped on his way to the auction
and purchased one at the bodega for half a dollar
and not six point two mil. With the excess,
he could have fed a school district or a senior
center. He probably could have purchased
a banana plantation and eaten one every day
for life. It was never about hunger, the way
a cigar is not always a cigar. The idea was bought
on behalf of capitalism, its ravenous appetite
for eating everything in its path and repackaging it,
before selling it to a hungry public and convincing them
there is no climate crisis; Ukraine caused its own
invasion; or the insurrection never was an attempt
to overthrow democracy. It is no joke
an oligarch in-waiting ate the banana from “Comedian.”
For the wealthy, the hoi polloi is always the butt
of the joke. The laughter comes at our expense.
like all organic things do. He untaped it,
unpeeled it and ate it because he owned it.
Of course, the banana and tape were symbols
for the concept behind the work of art,
the way crypto is a concept for money.
He could have stopped on his way to the auction
and purchased one at the bodega for half a dollar
and not six point two mil. With the excess,
he could have fed a school district or a senior
center. He probably could have purchased
a banana plantation and eaten one every day
for life. It was never about hunger, the way
a cigar is not always a cigar. The idea was bought
on behalf of capitalism, its ravenous appetite
for eating everything in its path and repackaging it,
before selling it to a hungry public and convincing them
there is no climate crisis; Ukraine caused its own
invasion; or the insurrection never was an attempt
to overthrow democracy. It is no joke
an oligarch in-waiting ate the banana from “Comedian.”
For the wealthy, the hoi polloi is always the butt
of the joke. The laughter comes at our expense.
Tom Lagasse’s poetry has appeared in Orenaug Mountain Poetry Journal, The Silver Birch Press poetry series, Freshwater Literary Journal, The Eunoia Review, and in numerous anthologies. He was a 2024 Artist in Residence at the Edwin Way Teale House at Trail Wood. He lives in Bristol, CT.
