NEW YORK (AP) — The first thing that strikes you, arriving in the gallery that houses artist Maurizio Cattelan’s latest satirical work, is the gleam. The brilliant gleam of 64 panels coated with 24-karat gold — in all, a glittering wall 17 feet tall and 68 feet wide. The second is the pockmarks on all that gold, created by more than 20,000 rounds of ammunition fired from six different weapons.
But the third impression is probably the most arresting: Up close, you can see yourself reflected in the gold. And when you take a selfie, as many viewers have been doing the last month, it looks like you yourself are riddled with bullet holes. Wealth and luxury in America, pierced by the agony of gun violence.
That’s the explanation most visitors take away from , the first in more than two decades by a conceptual artist famous for a series of similarly eyebrow-raising works. They include: A simple with duct tape that stole the show at Art Basel in Miami (and drew so much attention it had to be removed); a functioning toilet made of gold (it was ultimately stolen); and an effigy of the pope being felled by a meteorite. But ask Cattelan himself to define his new work, entitled “Sunday,” and the 63-year old Italian is adamant not to point a finger at America.
“We cannot be so specific,” he said in an interview, standing beside his work. “Actually it can be about any part of the world.” Ask to critique the critiques, he replied impishly: “I believe in plurality.
Whate.
