Miami Art Week Oddities: Voguing, Piss Christ NFTs, and Mini-putt
Wonderful, silly, and cynical events are taking place alongside Art Basel Miami Beach. These are some of the most extraordinary.
Andres Serrano's Piss Christ (1987). Photograph (detail). Courtesy the artist and a/political.
The most hype-fuelled event on the global art calendar is in full swing. Alongside Art Basel Miami Beach itself and institutional exhibitions around Miami are a host of peculiar happenings.
Decentralised museum Arkive held a voguing performance in the fair's Collectors Lounge on Thursday to celebrate their acquisition of three cloth fans used in Madonna's performance of the song 'Vogue' at the VMAs in 1990.
The fans are part of Arkive's 'When Technology was a Game Changer' collection, which includes the patent for the first computer, the photo montage Seduction (1985) by Lynn Hershman Leeson, and a maquette of the Moonman sculpture created by Pat Gorman for the MTV awards in 1984.
The Queen of Pop also features in the Art Basel booth of fashion house Saint Laurent, who are exhibiting Steven Meisel's photographs from Madonna's coffee table book Sex (1992) in support of an 800-edition re-issue of the book published by Callaway.
From one naughty catholic to another, Andres Serrano's Piss Christ (1987), the infamous photograph of a wooden crucifix steeped in the artist's urine, is being sold as part of the Christie's 3.0 sale 'Next Wave: The Miami Edit' from 30 November to 7 December.
The three versions of the work — one torn, one cracked, and one whole — hope to escape Piss Christ's history of vandalisation by moving to the blockchain. They each carry an estimate of 25–30 ETH (US $32,000–38,500), though none had received bids at time of publishing. Other artists featured in the sale include Mad Dog Jones, Slime Sunday, and Random International.
Famous for their Rain Room installations, Random International is presenting a new commission entitled Living Room (2022) on Faena Beach. Commissioned by Aorist in partnership with Faena Art, the work invites viewers to enter a space in which lights, fog, and sound respond to their movements. These are captured by sensors and the experience can then, of course, be minted to the blockchain.
Another NFT Project, Doodles, has set up a nine-hole mini-putt course at 2534 N Miami Ave, which opens from 2 to 3 December. Tee-times are limited.
Despite the recent collapse of crypto-platform FTX, the art world is moving forward with some major blockchain projects, including Art Basel's own Arcual, which aims to use the technology to streamline art transactions.
For an old-media experience, there's Lucy Sparrow's hand-sewn McDonald's booth at the SCOPE Art Show, which features burgers, drinks, fries, and ketchup sachets with cute cartoon faces. Scope continues through 4 December. —[O]
