As long as were on a roll with controversial artworks, here is a particularly fascinating event that took place in the 1990's, when the K foundation (also known as the band KLF) burned one million quid (the entirety of their record sales profits) on the beach on Britain. The ramifications of this are obviously huge, and the work continues to be discussed for its audacity and impact, by- of course- the lovers and the haters. Here is their wikipedia page (which describes their oeuvre of works - and there are many.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_Foundation
Here is the first segment of a documentary made about the project. You can find and watch all 5 parts of this (each 10 minutes) on youtube. It tracks them across several years subsequent to burning all that cash.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
we studied this in my cultural anthropology class a few years ago alongside a discussion on looting and how that affects our social environment. it's weird when you think about money as essentially just a social construction. i don't know how i feel about it -- it's the kind of thing i end up liking mostly just because it was such a powerful piece and was so provocative.
Yes. For the most part I agree with you. However, I sometimes doubt that money is merely a social construction. Sometimes I think of it as no different than blood, pumping through the body of a social system we know very little about, and maybe never will. On liking the piece I'm right there with you, and I would even go so far as to say this makes my top 3 all time most powerful, difficult to wrestle with art projects. It affects me really strongly and I like to feel the massive weight of it by imagining how difficult it would be for me to burn a single, lowly $10 bill.
It takes some pretty strong convictions to actually go through with burning that much money.
Post a Comment