The Body of Michael Daines, 2000 (CANADA)

The devil, commenting on the first man's first drawing on Earth, whispered into his ear: "That's good, but... is it art?"
Orson Welles, in F for Fake, 1972.

eBay is one of the most brilliant success stories of cyberspace. Where so many e-businesses foundered, eBay continues to be a Web space of ceaseless trafic and commerce. Literally everything is for sale on eBay!

Michael Daines, a young Web designer from Calgary, decided to put his "body" for sale on eBay ("The body," he writes, "of a young man in overall good condition with minor imperfections"). Fans can purchase signed, "unlimited edition"1 photo representations of him - to a degree, at least, since the black and white photograph only shows the body from neck to knees, dressed in white T-shirt and a pair of jeans, both quite worn. The gesture earned him artistic recognition from, among others, Rhizome and Artforum.

Throughout the twentieth century, many artists have taken on the task of questioning and constantly stretching the limits of what art is, or could be; especially so in so-called conceptual art. Less an artistic movement as such, the latter corresponds with the artist's adoption of a critical point of view that leads him to take position in his work, or rather to make the work itself a positional stance with respect to the art world, and to the world itself. The border lines between art and business, in particular, between the object traditionally called "art object" and the manufactured object, have been examined and their legitimacy questioned.

Nevertheless, Daines' gesture may be viewed simply as hoax, a schoolboy's joke. Which is simply to note that what distinguished this work - and why, in fact, one may call it an "art work" - resides as much in the flawless simplicity of the gesture, typical of conceptual art at its best, where the "work"'s value is indistinguishable from the assurance with which the artist passes from intention to action2, as in the quality of the photograph itself, with the troubling absence of the face, hovering off-frame, lending the image a discreet, diffuse, yet real eroticism.

Anne-Marie Boisvert

2- A successful work is thus equivalent to a successful action. Or, as Daines puts it, "As Art Nazi once said, art is everything that is created." (cf. When Were You Told That It Was Really Art?, An Interview With Michael Daines by Eryk Salvaggio, Rhizome, 2001).

N.B. Read this interview with Michael Daines by Eryk Salvaggio reproduced in this issue.