" felt only night within me and it was then that I conceived the new art. "
Kazimir Malevich
YKB : NYC is a feature length art-film proposal in which 2 art-handlers driving a truck in New York city experience the city as a grand artwork while the works of art themselves are merely absurd commodity objects: balloon dogs and invisible objects in shipping crates.
Enabled by their unique access to New York City, the art handlers initiate a ‘performance piece’ in which they begin stealing and relocating (or re-curating) privately owned works of art. The project is funded by a hedge fund financier and major collector whom they met in Dubai while they were working at the Dubai Art Fair and he was purchasing a very rare cigar.
The works targeted are The Black Square; Balloon Dog; Jackson Pollock No. 5, 1948; a very large Anish Kapoor; For The Love Of God; Yves Klein’s International Blue; and a Charles Burchfield painting…. Many other works of art are featured in the daily work and encounters of the art-handlers.
They document their actions and release a Manifesto-video on Youtube describing their intention: to return value to value, communication to communication, and to return the blue to the sky. They spray paint an empty orange square, or frame, on the white wall behind them in the video.
An empty orange square is featured on the cover of Art Forum.
The Collector/Fancier approaches Sotheby’s with a mysterious art-work. A black box containing a video that has documented the performance thefts of the art handlers. Tobias Meyer of Sotheby’s asserts that Sotheby’s does not sell media, and the Collector replies, “You do now.”
The Collector also agrees to provide the minimum bid. The Collector has become the commissioner, the seller, and the buyer of the piece – creating and determining it’s existence and value in a self-enclosed loop. Sotheby’s features an empty orange square on the cover of it’s evening catalog and the black box becomes one of the highest priced items to sell at contemporary auction: a black box containing a video of the live de-valuing and re-valuing of the art and commodity. And the feature art-film is itself this video.
YKB:NYC will be shot on location in New York City and Dubai. It will feature an insanely good soundtrack playing from inside the art-moving truck. It will feature the art-handlers as themselves and Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Matthew Barney, Bjork, Yoko Ono, Hans Ulrich Obrist, David Lynch, Werner Herzog and many others in roles not themselves.
Due to the insane costs and approvals involved in making a feature-film, YKB:NYC has not been realized. Should it ever be realized it may well fall short of its intended goal of being the highest selling work of art at contemporary auction as a feature film documenting the making of a video art which is that feature film about the making of a work of video art, due to other restrictions.
•
Jeff Wood
" felt only night within me and it was then that I conceived the new art. "
Kazimir Malevich
YKB : NYC is a feature length art-film proposal in which 2 art-handlers driving a truck in New York city experience the city as a grand artwork while the works of art themselves are merely absurd commodity objects: balloon dogs and invisible objects in shipping crates.
Enabled by their unique access to New York City, the art handlers initiate a ‘performance piece’ in which they begin stealing and relocating (or re-curating) privately owned works of art. The project is funded by a hedge fund financier and major collector whom they met in Dubai while they were working at the Dubai Art Fair and he was purchasing a very rare cigar.
The works targeted are The Black Square; Balloon Dog; Jackson Pollock No. 5, 1948; a very large Anish Kapoor; For The Love Of God; Yves Klein’s International Blue; and a Charles Burchfield painting…. Many other works of art are featured in the daily work and encounters of the art-handlers.
They document their actions and release a Manifesto-video on Youtube describing their intention: to return value to value, communication to communication, and to return the blue to the sky. They spray paint an empty orange square, or frame, on the white wall behind them in the video.
An empty orange square is featured on the cover of Art Forum.
The Collector/Fancier approaches Sotheby’s with a mysterious art-work. A black box containing a video that has documented the performance thefts of the art handlers. Tobias Meyer of Sotheby’s asserts that Sotheby’s does not sell media, and the Collector replies, “You do now.”
The Collector also agrees to provide the minimum bid. The Collector has become the commissioner, the seller, and the buyer of the piece – creating and determining it’s existence and value in a self-enclosed loop. Sotheby’s features an empty orange square on the cover of it’s evening catalog and the black box becomes one of the highest priced items to sell at contemporary auction: a black box containing a video of the live de-valuing and re-valuing of the art and commodity. And the feature art-film is itself this video.
YKB:NYC will be shot on location in New York City and Dubai. It will feature an insanely good soundtrack playing from inside the art-moving truck. It will feature the art-handlers as themselves and Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Matthew Barney, Bjork, Yoko Ono, Hans Ulrich Obrist, David Lynch, Werner Herzog and many others in roles not themselves.
Due to the insane costs and approvals involved in making a feature-film, YKB:NYC has not been realized. Should it ever be realized it may well fall short of its intended goal of being the highest selling work of art at contemporary auction as a feature film documenting the making of a video art which is that feature film about the making of a work of video art, due to other restrictions.
•
Jeff Wood