The Entrepreneurial Spirit: Art as (Very) Small Business
With what appear to be some hardscrabble economic times ahead of us, it may be an appropriate time to re-evaluate the way we as artists do business.
With that in mind, I dusted off my DVD collection to revisit on old favorite- Full Frame: Documentary Shorts Vol. 2. In 2003, “Have You Seen this Man?,” a 17-minute short by filmmakers Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, was released exploring the conceptual art of Brooklyn-based artist Geoff Lupo. Through his work, Lupo challenges traditional notions of value, advertising, and distribution in our consumer society. With the xeroxed flyer as his print medium, Lupo “highlights the futility of human behavior” by selling seemingly worthless detritus like paper clips, crackers, and thumb tacks to the people of Brooklyn (an audience particularly receptive to this kind of social experiment).
The flyers initiate brief performances: moments of one-on-one human interaction and excuses for personal communication. In the film, Lupo points out that the foundation for the interaction is based on “a mutually agreed upon absurdity” as the labor involved for both seller and buyer far outweighs the inherent monetary value of the object being sold. Ultimately, the question seems to be less about the value of the object and instead about the value of the exchange itself.
“Have You Seen This Man?” is one of the seven films featured on Full Frame: Documentary Shorts Vol. 2. And for further reading, The New York Times did a short piece on Lupo in 2001.
Great post. This is very cool and thought provoking work.