Would you use an 18 karat gold toilet? What if it was as part of an art exhibit?
Our society has long been obsessed with fancy toilets. In 1917, famed artist Marcel Duchamp made a statement with his work “Fountain,” which claimed a urinal was art. Starting in the 1990’s, we grew more obsessed with having toilets-as-art in our homes: black toilets and those crazy technological ones became de rigeur. Our beloved Bob’s Burgers made an episode about it:
Well, according to House Beautiful, now even those fancy toilets are things of the past. The new standard is gold. At least, according to an artist at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
An artist created a solid-gold toilet for the Guggenheim. And, yes, it is fully functional. https://t.co/Iq2R0HD4Xb pic.twitter.com/EjYyPCW7Lr
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) September 14, 2016
Italian designer Maurizio Cattelan created this 18-carat golden toilet and installed it in a tiny bathroom toward the top of a spiral staircase in the museum. The toilet is fully functional and, more shockingly, open to the public. The exhibit is called “America.”
According to the Guggenheim’s website:
Cattelan’s toilet offers a wink to the excesses of the art market but also evokes the American dream of opportunity for all—its utility ultimately reminding us of the inescapable physical realities of our shared humanity.
Well, we have to say, we’re intrigued. Plus, we have always wondered what it would feel like to sit on a pile of gold.
