Jonalysis

What do you get if you take a mannequin, clothe it, replace its head with something that resembles the head of a giant bird and surround the mannequin with other similarly prepared mannequins, numerous mirrors and all kinds of junk?

Art.

At least that’s what David Altmejd wants people to believe. And at least one curator does believe. Altmejd’s The Index, a sculptural installation, fills a room in the contemporary wing of the Art Gallery of Ontario.

“The leather pants come from a fetish store” says Altmejd, referring to the pants in which he has clothed a couple of the mannequins.

The Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council (YTV) takes care of waste management in the Helsinki area. In order to decrease the production of waste, YTV has launched a campaign called “Give an immaterial gift”.

One of the posters of the campaign advises to give a ticket to a concert as a gift. The poster features a photorealistic drawing of a gift-wrapped male cellist with his cello. The cellist wears leather pants. The drawing undoubtedly refers to Apocalyptica, a Finnish cello metal band.

I wouldn’t mind receiving a ticket to Apocalyptica’s concert as a gift. A gig by Lauri Tähkä would be fine, too. To be precise, any concert would do as long as the musicians were nice-looking fellows wearing leather pants.

Actually, forget all about concerts and tickets: just put your leather pants on and invite yourself to shoot the breeze with me. I’m sure that would count as an immaterial gift. After all, empty wine bottles can be recycled.

What kind of immaterial gifts would you like to receive?