Axe-tually a NIce Pick-ture

1976

mixed technique 95x63x11 cm (LED internally lit)

Dedicated to Reinhold Messner & Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde said, ‘The man who calls a spade a spade should be compelled to use one. It is the only thing he is fit for.’

Reinhold Messner astonished the world by making the first solo ascent of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen, and for being the first climber to ascend all fourteen ‘eight-thousanders’ (peaks over 8,000 metres above sea level).
This piece refers to the practice of declaring readymade objects as artworks. Is it (‘axe-tually’) what it purports to be ?