Vitaly Komar (b. 1943, Russia)
Alexander Melamid (b. 1945, Russia)
People’s Choice, 1994-7

Why, why does my art keeps having been realised decades ago prior to my conception of it?? I thought, it would be my masterpiece – until I came across a pretty close realisation of “my” idea by Komar & Melamid some 25 years ago…

They hired marketing agency to poll people’s views as to what they find most and lest desirable features of painting and music – and made works on the basis of the outcome. There are some differences in the details – K&M aimed to discuss democracy, while I was aiming to challenge the notion of art as language/communication by ironically hiring communication professionals to do it “properly”. So possibly, just possibly, I might still go ahead and get it done, but the novelty aspect in the structure of the concept is rather exhausted, making it less rewarding for me.

So yeah, it is very pertinent. Whether as an art historical input directly affecting my work by rendering it unnecessary – or as a predecessor that would make a relevant comparison point to my own rendition.