Rex Murphy: Our not-so-brave new world has gone bananas

People attending the Art Basel Miami show on Dec. 6, 2019, take a photo of artist Maurizio Cattelan's "Comedian" — a banana taped to the wall — which was purchased for $120,000. Cindy Ord/Getty Images

There is no doubt that we live in interesting times. In spite of how exhausting the phrase is, hardly a day goes by when a story does not stop the mind, marveling at how strange they have become.

Thus, it should be noted that almost a month ago, a prestigious art house presented a strange “work” of modern art at an exhibition in Miami. It was a banana attached to a wall. There was no literature to go with him to explain why it was a banana, instead of saying a kumquat or a watermelon, or something like that, something other than citrus.

It should be noted that Art, capital A, has come a long way downhill since Michelangelo blessed the world with his Pietà, or closer to our time, Turner created the explosive wonder of The Slave Ship. Time was, art required executive skills, unique imagination, deep study and practice and, in many cases, extreme and devouring dedication.

An increasingly wild world

Now, given a banana and a roll of duct tape, all that is really required is for the right people to say it’s art. There is no doubt that we have a magical world when, if someone wants something to be something different, all they have to do is simply say it. Self-declaration without reservations is the most curious route to truth or reality. This magical thinking has an impact on other areas.

Thus, outside the art world, there is a group that calls itself “Antifa”, by its own statement, an abbreviated version of antifascist. The routine of this group is to dress in black, from head to toe and hit people with whom its members disagree.

It is not necessary to look for Politics and the English language to understand that if simply affirming something is what it clearly is not, in many cases it is exactly the opposite, in fact, separating words from their meaning becomes acceptable, the world will do it. It quickly becomes a crazy and unbearable jumble.

It is important to mention that Canada had its own banana attached to a wall this year when a litigator in British Columbia upset and harassed 16 women. Despite the unquestionable biological status of Jessica Yaniv as a man. Yaniv received a hearing in a human rights court because Yaniv was denied a female hair removal treatment. In this matter, it was enough for Yaniv to insist on femininity to launch this whole issue. That being so, it is difficult in logic, why if self-declaration is the only and unquestionable standard, a person could not declare himself as an umbrella and then start a lawsuit against Weather Channel because it got wet when it rained.

Source: Rex Murphy | National Post