Friday 3 October 2008

All Gold


Exciting news from the British Museum where a statue of Kate Moss, entitled Siren and made from gold by Marc Quinn has just been unveiled. Read what The Times has to say about it. The museum could not be a more appropriate location for this momentous event given its function as the storehouse of all that is finest in human creativity. Nobody can now accuse the museum of holding itself aloof from contemporary celebrity culture. As for Mr Quinn, his reputation for stunning creative leaps of the imagination that overturn all our preconceptions is surely unchallengeable. Kate Moss, with her sober and reflective lifestyle, her friendly and approachable manner, her modesty and her disdain for material values, gets nothing less than she richly deserves.


It’s an idle presumption to imagine that this artistic triumph could be improved upon but a modest proposal might not be entirely out of order. In 1961 Piero Manzoni produced, signed and numbered 90 tins each containing 30 gms of merda d’artista (artist’s shit) and offered them for sale in return for a sum equivalent to an equal weight of gold at that day’s prices. If the gold statue were melted down, the proceeds could be spent acquiring all the surviving tins. The tins could be opened and Mr Quinn, with due regard for Health and Safety, could model the contents into a new likeness of Ms Moss. Finally, there’s an opportunity for Ms Moss to make her contribution to the creative cycle by providing some of her own faeces to refill the empty tins. There would be no shortage of galleries willing to exhibit the results and Ms Moss would have the satisfaction of being a fully engaged member of the art community with a glittering future ahead of her.

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