invisible sculpture sells for thousands of dollars

#Invisible sculpture sells for thousands of dollars how to#
#Invisible sculpture sells for thousands of dollars full#
#Invisible sculpture sells for thousands of dollars professional#

But not only is this story a hoax – it also appears to be untrue that collectors will pay a fortune for the non-existent. I want to see those rich art snobs suffer, too. The image of rich people forking out for invisible art and proudly showing it to their friends as the very latest thing is such a glorious image of plutocratic idiocy that it just had to be true. The reason CBC’s joke story had legs is not so much that we want to laugh at contemporary art, as that we are so shocked and repelled by the art market. Imagine paying someone a million dollars for some Emperor’s New Clothes shit?.” Some of the art afficianados actually stop and soak in the lack of art that is not hanging on the blank wall.”īarstool Sports agreed: “If you’re some artsy fartsy idiot paying money for invisible art, you GOTTA kill yourself. “The most amusing aspect of the story,” it enthused, “is the image of snobby art collectors walking through an empty studio studiously staring at blank walls. Believing Lana Newstrom to be real, it sneered at her stupid rich collectors. It shows how much we hate the rich.Ī website called Wealthy Debates relished the exposure, not so much of art, as of art collectors. On the other hand, what they took from it is revealing. So, given that if anything Lana Newstrom’s art is a bit staid and behind the times, it is not so strange that people were fooled by the hoax. Gianni Motti’s Magic Ink, 1989, included in the Hayward Gallery’s exhibition Invisible: Art About the Unseen. Yet the controversy was not about the potential invisibility of the idea – it was about plagiarism, for another artist claimed prior rights in nothing. This year, Marina Abramović caused a stir when she said her exhibition at London’s Serpentine would be about “nothing”. Invisible: Art about the Unseen, 1957-2012 “is not a joke”, insisted curator Ralph Rugoff. Ever hear of John Cage? The Hayward Gallery even dedicated a historical exhibition in 2012 to this phenomenon. I am yawning, it is so retrograde and familiar – just another rehash of ideas that go back to the 1950s. As UNILAD reveals, the Italian artist’s invisible sculpture is called Io Sono, or I Am. And the best part is that he managed to sell it for thousands of dollars Credits: Salvatore Garau. And that’s just the tip of an invisible iceberg.įor Lana Newstrom is not the radical artist she has been taken for. Instead of creating a sculpture made from bronze or marble, Garau designed a masterpiece made from air and spirit. Martin Creed and Susan Philipsz both won it for empty rooms – Creed’s with the lights going on and off, Philipsz’s with a folk song sound installation. While all of the work in this year’s Turner is just about visible, this prize has often featured the not-quite-there. But I can see why so many people fell for it – especially having just covered the Turner prize.

#Invisible sculpture sells for thousands of dollars professional#

“You don’t see it but it exists it is made of air and spirit. It is a work that asks you to activate the power of the imagination, a power that anyone has, even those who don’t believe they have it.The invisible art of Lana Newstrom is in fact a hoax, perpetrated by professional radio parodists Pat Kelly and Peter Oldring.

“When I decide to ‘exhibit’ an immaterial sculpture in a given space, that space will concentrate a certain amount and density of thoughts at a precise point, creating a sculpture that, from my title, will only take the most varied forms,” continued the artist. The buyer also got a certificate of authenticity.

#Invisible sculpture sells for thousands of dollars how to#

The sale came with instructions on how to display the invisible sculpture in your private home, clarifying that it must be displayed in a roughly five-by-five-foot space free of obstruction. “Therefore, it has energy that is condensed and transformed into particles, that is, into us.”

#Invisible sculpture sells for thousands of dollars full#

“The vacuum is nothing more than a space full of energy, and even if we empty it and there is nothing left, according to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, that nothing has a weight,” he said to Italian outlet Diario AS. Garau would certainly disagree that the piece is non-existent as he has explained that he views it as a sort of vacuum. The 67-year-old artist broke down barriers in the art world by auctioning off a piece for thousands of dollars, despite the sculpture not even existing.