From The Art Newspaper: Maurizio Cattelan’s duct-taped banana caused an uproar at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019 and quickly went viral as a symbol of the absurdism of the contemporary art market, though Cattelan himself described Comedian (2019), his first “sculpture” in 15 years, as “a sincere commentary and a reflection on what we value”. That value will be put to the test next month, when one of the three editions of Comedian goes up for sale at Sotheby’s New York. Made up of a banana duct taped to the wall, the work includes a certificate of authenticity and instructions for how to display the sculpture. The work, which was priced at $120,000 by a gallery in Miami Beach in 2019, is estimated by Sotheby’s to sell for between $1m and $1.5m. A single banana and one roll of duct tape are included in the sale, the auction house said.”
The rollercoaster king: the man behind the UK’s fastest thrill-ride
From The Guardian: “When rollercoaster fans speak of creativity, they speak of Anton Schwarzkopf, late pioneer of the loop, and Ron Toomer, who became the first engineer to haul people up more than 200ft before sending them into a drop. They speak of Alan Schilke and Jeff Pike, both admired for their structures that marry timber with steel. They speak of Werner Stengel, a living legend at 88, whose idea it was to send passengers hurtling around corners while tilted at 90 degrees. John Burton – a self-effacing aficionado of theme parks and musical theatre from Staffordshire – is an anomaly. He was only a few years on from working as a crab feeder at an English aquarium when he was invited to create his first rollercoaster. He was given an £18m budget, a patch of damp ground, and told: make it big. He was 27.”
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