“In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”
Andy Warhol
“Warhol is so yesterday-be a celebrity for 15 seconds.”
John Baldessari
If Baldessari has his way he will give everyone a shot at fame in his recent conceptual piece titled “Your Name in Lights”. The work features a Broadway style marquee that will display the names of 120,000 lucky participants outside the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam this June. All you had to do was submit your name on-line with the museum. For Baldessari, “Your Name” explores the cult of celebrity in modern society and our rabid fascination with fame. The Los Angeles artist recently wrapped a similar project in Australia.
Names are displayed for a mere 15 seconds which I think is an ironic commentary on celebrity 1/2 life and shortened attention spans punctuated by tweets, status updates and brief YouTube videos.
Case in point. Do you know the average amount of time a museum visitor gives to a painting? According to Baldessari 7 seconds. This is down a few seconds compared to a few years ago. The other interesting thing about this piece is that Baldessari specifically wanted to take the art out of the museum to have it accessible to the general public.
Of course I couldn’t resist signing up for this. My 15 seconds of fame will commence at 10:02 PST on Weds (that is if I got my European Central conversion right)
Culture Shock Art 