We’re pleased to report that Harris Commmunications Group client Diemut Strebe — until recently, artist-in-residence at the MIT Center for Art, Science and Technology (CAST)– is featured in the November 5 issue of The New Yorker.
In a story titled “How to Make a Diamond Disappear” –which we pitched to the “Talk of the Town”– New Yorker writer and editor Tyler Foggat discusses how and why Strebe “turned a two-million-dollar gem into a black hole.”
As we explained in our outreach, “Strebe, a German-born conceptual artist, collaborated with MIT scientists to create Sugababe, a replica of Van Gogh’s famously severed ear– a project that explored the edges of biotechnology and questions the romantic myth of the genius artist.
“Ms. Strebe’s latest project involves a 16.78 carat yellow diamond valued at $ 2.000.000 that is covered with a new nanomaterial, “blacker than the blackest black,” which makes the diamond virtually invisible. The work, called “The Redemption of Vanity” was unveiled at an opening on September 13 at the New York Stock Exchange.
“While the opening and the ‘disappearing diamond’ have received considerable media coverage, most stories focused either on the nanotech breakthrough as a scientific advancement or in relation to the controversial monopolization of so-called ‘Vantablack’ (considered, until the recent breakthrough, the “blackest black”)–by British Artist Kapoor for his own personal use.
“[Strebe says she is not interested in the commercialization of the arts and does not believe in exclusive ownership of any material or idea for any artwork. She and the MIT team will make the new method to any artist.]
“However, Strebe says, both media perspectives missed the essence of the artistic concept . That is, the unification of the most extreme opposites in exposure to light–the diamond and the nanomaterial being, respectively, brightest and darkest materials on earth (both are made of carbon, with different ordering of the same carbon atoms)in a single piece of art. This idea is a modern reference to Greek philosopher Heraclitus.
“Most previous coverage also missed the work’s questioning of the value of art, the art market and luxury objects.
‘After all,’ Strebe points out, ‘it wasn’t a potato that disappeared.’
“The site of presentation—the board room of the NYSE– is also of major importance in that the NYSE is the “holy grail” of value determination and generation, a manmade and arbitrary assigner of value to concepts and things, she says.
Here’s a link to the New Yorker article.
–Anita M. Harris