Donald MacInnes: Art through the looking glass

"Intractable Desire No.6" was 342 Sugar Puffs in the left foot of an old pair of tights

Donald Macinnes
Saturday 16 June 2012 00:00 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

I was rendered quiet as a mouse mime yesterday when I got to Page 21 in i. Never having been what you'd call "a joiner-inner", I'm fine with that which lives outside the mainstream. But here was something which caused even me to question, you know, everything.

It was a photograph of a woman staring at her inverted image in a mirror at Sotheby's in London. What was odd was that said mirror is actually a work of art called (or not) "Untitled" by Anish Kapoor. It will be auctioned on Tuesday and its starting price is in the £400,000 to £600,000 bracket.

That's half a million beans. For a mirror. That doesn't work. Unless you're a bat. And even then, your image would be the right way up. Then again, you're a bat and bats, as we all know, are anything but vain, so this probably wouldn't ruin your day.

With some research, I find this isn't an isolated incident of art madness. Last year Christie's sold an installation called "Intractable Desire No.6" for £240,000 to an anonymous bidder.

And do you know what "Intractable Desire No.6" was? 342 Sugar Puffs in the left foot of an old pair of tights. Can this really be art? Is this what we've become?

It seems so, because two years ago Bonhams broke the then-world record when it sold a sneeze for £300. I'm limp with disdain.

All we can do is vote with our feet and boycott the auction on Tuesday. Are you with me?

twitter.com/DonaldAMacInnes

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in