Author: Yingbao
On the white shelf, there is a sculpture, do you see it?
It doesn't matter if you can't see it, everyone can't see it, because it's invisible.
Invisible, divided into two states: physical and magical, the former requires the use of chemical agents or optical principles to achieve visual deception; the latter can not even touch, completely gone.
The sculpture, titled "I Am," belongs to the latter.
I Am was created by Italian artist Salvatore Garau – "imaginary" to be precise. He himself admits that the sculpture does not exist in the real world, and its significance is to prove that "nothingness is also a space full of energy, and even if we empty the room, nothingness still has weight."
This sculpture that can make Einstein mad, after being packaged by artistic ideas, has attracted a lot of Bole. According to foreign media reports, "I Am" was sold for 15,000 euros (about 110,000 yuan) at an auction price, and the identity of the buyer is unknown.
The nihilistic deal was accompanied by a maintenance note: the buyer must store the sculpture in a space of at least 3 square meters with no obstacles around it.
Needs to be stored in a secure environment.
And, an officially stamped certificate of authenticity – proof that you actually brought the sculpture home.
Many art peers do not recognize "I Am" as a "work of art", because once the boundaries of art definition are extended to "four-dimensional space", it is equivalent to no definition, and art will be reduced to a tool for sensationalism and even money laundering.
As we all know, the fairy tale "The Emperor's New Clothes" aims to satirize hypocrisy, stupidity and blind following the trend. Now a realistic version of the "Emperor's New Clothes" is in front of us, and if we approve of it, are we not repeating that stupid plot?
But Salvatore wasn't going to take the blame off, after all, it wasn't his first invisible work, and it wouldn't be the last.
In January, February and May 2021, Salvator exhibited three invisible sculptures he "created", "The Thinker", "Contemplating Buddha" and "Weeping Aphrodite" in Oristano, Italy, Milan, and New York City in the United States.
How do you tell passers-by that there is a work of nothingness here? Salvatore's approach was to tap into a square on the ground and put up a sign on the side to remind everyone to "not kick the sculpture badly"
Inside the square frame, there is a "sculpture" of the Contemplative Buddha.
Interestingly, a cultural association in New York also provided a large screen for invisible sculptures. When someone passes by the invisible sculpture, a music video of the violin and guitar ensemble will appear on the screen to create a sense of atmosphere.
The public generally can't understand it, but it has been officially certified, which has raised the degree of insanity of nihilistic art to another level.
Looking back at art history, in addition to Salvator, there are other artists who follow the "feeling of nothingness". However, every time they launch a work, it will cause controversy.
In 2001, British artist Martin Creed released "These Lights Will Flicker and Flicker." In an empty room, the neon lights on the ceiling flicker on and off – that's all there is to the work.
"These Lights Will Flicker and Go Out"
Martin said: "I want to block the increasingly saturated cultural and visual load. "It can be understood that he wants to help everyone get rid of the meaningless load, so he has put together the same meaningless but distracting load."
At that time, an artist named Jacqueline Crofton, in order to express his dissatisfaction with nihilistic art, threw a rotten egg into the room.
The art of nihilism was also carried to the realm of music. In 1952, pianist David Tudor performed a "non-existent piece" in Canada. After opening the piano lid, he sat motionless for more than 4 minutes, then got up and bowed to close the curtain.
Look again at his piano score, which has only one Latin word: Tacet (silence).
If the art of nothingness is allowed to continue to develop, will this "emperor's new clothes" one day replace the real clothes and wear them on us?
Other academic fields, or should think the same way.