Comedian 2019

Maurizio Cattelan made this piece called "Comedian" by affixing a banana to a wall, I assume with duct tape. The gesture is so simple it almost seems like a dare, or a kid’s prank. It definitely makes you wonder about the nature of art-making as a process! The banana itself has such a temporary quality, like a brushstroke that's destined to fade. I’m thinking about the marks and gestures we make, what gets preserved, and what rots. Then there’s the duct tape, holding it all together, but so raw and industrial looking. It's a material with real presence, its shiny silver surface somehow offering a strange beauty. It reminds me of Arte Povera. Cattelan invites us to see value in the everyday, the fleeting, and the absurd, much like Fischli and Weiss did with their sausage photographs. It makes me think about the possibilities of art as an ongoing conversation, full of open questions and playful provocations.