Vogue is asking: Can a Vibrator Be Art?
The problem isn’t with the vibrator as an art object; it’s something much deeper (lol) and not about art itself.
Let’s start with a reminder of a satirical experiment from 2016:
On June 4, the satirical news site the Science Post published a block of “lorem ipsum” text under a frightening headline: “Study: 70% of Facebook users only read the headline of science stories before commenting.”
Nearly 46,000 people shared the post, some of them quite earnestly — an inadvertent example, perhaps, of life imitating comedy.
…it was shared 46,000 times on Facebook, proving that many people read the headline only and value it more than actually reading the main content.
Last week, I saw a post in my feed from a Ukrainian artist proudly sharing that she creates her paintings using her breasts and exhibits them in the same galleries where my artworks were rejected. She even offers workshops for others to try the same. I can’t stop thinking about how I could use my own anatomy to write this newsletter.
If you’ve been following our previous newsletters, you’ll know that themes of gender and nudity are currently trending in the art world.
It’s clear that there’s a trend for sexuality in art, and artists, curators, and collectors all seem ready for a grand orgy in a modern art museum, ideally organised by Christie’s or Sotheby’s, with tickets sold through an auction — maybe that’s what it’ll take to increase art revenue.
This trend doesn’t make art worse; art has always embraced themes of sexuality. But the real question is, can a vibrator make art better, like Duchamp’s fountain did? Are there more intriguing concepts for art than a vibrator?
Since 1917, no topics or objects have been truly forbidden in art, but we still have media ready to create sensations and scandals with clickbait headlines just to gain number of visitors and shares in social media — another challenge for modern art and artists.
At a time when museums are emptying, AI is threatening artists not only by replicating styles but also by eliminating the need to buy original artwork, and art sales are dropping, the last thing we need is to perpetuate this “negative” vibe and the image of artists as dumb marginals.
Because let’s be honest: most people will only read the headline and not the article like I did.
So, can a vibrator be art? Yes. But can art be a vibrator?
PS: Of the four paintings I sold last quarter, only one depicted a person even partially clothed. And if you’re thinking my collectors are clueless, think again—one of them is the CEO of a publicly traded company on NASDAQ.
So… Everyone loves nudity and sex in art, yet everyone hates climate activists with soup and clickbait headlines in art.
😗