This isn’t the first time a hungry onlooker has eaten “Comedian.” In 2019, performance artist David Datuna snatched the banana from the wall at the Perrotin Gallery at Art Basel in Miami and ate the fruit in front of shocked onlookers.
But for the artist, Maurizio Cattelan, the frequent consumption of his work is “no problem.”
Cattelan acknowledges that his work is largely satirical and pokes fun at the absurdities of popular culture. Even for those who have ingested his art, like David Datuna, Cattelan’s art is a product of “genius,” The Guardian reports.
Cattelan’s previous works include “America,” an 18-carat-gold toilet valued at more than $6 million, and “Il Dito,” a middle-finger sculpture that sat opposite Milan’s stock exchange.
In the case of “Comedian,” the Perrotin Gallery told CNN that the banana is “a symbol of global trade, a double entendre, as well as a classic device for humor.” Cattelan uses everyday objects in his art as “vehicles of both delight and critique.”
Noh seemed to find his own meaning in the art piece, telling the Korea Herald that “damaging a work of modern art could also be [interpreted as] artwork.”
“I thought it would be interesting…isn’t it taped there to be eaten?” Noh questioned the Korea Herald.
