Doubt is a nasty thing. They can ruin your whole life. Does she still love me Am i good enough at my job? Did the used goods dealer cheat me? Does God exist or not? Actually, life is best without it. But on the other hand, doubts also make existence interesting and challenging. And that’s why it is high time that doubt was finally invented as a product. It can’t be that everything is for sale in consumer democracy, except for this agonizing feeling. And as so often happens in product development in the aesthetic area, where the real reinventions of successful goods mostly come from the military (T-shirt, PC, shooting games) or from art (design, brand, color prints), there is also doubt as Fad does not originate from H&M.
The action does not undermine the art market – it uses it. Increase in value included
But at MSCHF, from the English mischief for “mischief”. The Brooklyn art firm, which not so long ago caused a sensation with its Nike adaptation of a blood-filled “Satan” sneaker (because Nike sued it, of course), has now produced a thousand Doubt for $ 250 each. That’s how much a Warhol sketch costs you that is not just maybe, but probably not real, but maybe it is. Because the brand guerrillas from MSCHF bought a real Warhol (the cute fairy drawing with the title “Fairies”) for $ 20,000. Then they copied the easily forged piece of art, which consists of just a few strokes. A robotic arm drew 999 versions. Then the original was shuffled into the deck of cards like a joker, and anyone who buys a copy now can be 0.1 percent certain that they have the original.
Would the forger have had the artist’s support? You will never find out – Andy Warhol died in 1987.
(Photo: SUZANNE VLAMIS / ASSOCIATED PRESS)
But 99.9 percent that it is a fake. Oh, doubt, how do you hang on the wall then. And the work of art, with or without an authentic aura, also wafts a little envy. Because 1000 times 250 is 250,000 dollars that MSCHF earns with the sale. What a gain for the supposedly capitalism-critical volte of capitalism with which MSCHF wants to finally shatter “the chain of trust” on which the profits with “originals” in the art market are based. Because, as MSCHF’s chief creative officer, Lukas Bentel, told CNN: “For the majority of wealthy private individuals who collect art, it’s not about the aesthetic value, but only about the investment value.” But has MSCHF done away with art as an object of speculation?
One can have serious doubts about that. Because MSCHF, who have cut 88 colorful polka dots by Damien Hirst from an original print and made a 100 percent profit on the individual sale, are seriously only clever product developers with unbelievable margins. Although it is very unlikely that your business idea will one day become a global McZweifel concern, you have only offered the art market clientele one more reason for originality, which means that enormous price increases can be expected. Just as Banksy’s shredded picture “Girl with Balloon” live at the 2018 auction couldn’t really raise any doubts about art speculation, because it did In mid-October it was auctioned again for £ 16 million instead of 1.2 million. So it is also worthwhile to access the nonsense fairies. There will be profit, no doubt.