Saturday, February 24

Dash Snow's Coke

The first eBay pranks were about the idea or possibility of an eBay prank (or something like it). These works both celebrated and mocked their target, eBay. And what we remember best about them is the form, an eBay prank. However, the moment when this form (an eBay prank) could still be viewed as an interesting primary content for a work of art has passed. To be an interesting work of art an eBay prank must, while exploiting the form, be about something else. This is the case with Brian Electro's eBay prank, which earlier in the week was posted on eBay and then a day later pulled by eBay. Brian's work is about Dash Snow and eBay is simply the vehicle to deliver the goods. The real subject is not some person, the one who goes by the memorable name, but the name itself and the (media) persona indexed by it. The work calls attention to the fact that Dash Snow is really "Dash Snow."