Unselected for Rare Bananas:
I haven't really participated in an 'art submission competition,' perhaps ever, as I’m a bit old-school and view it much like Prince might have viewed the rise of TV singing contests. However, the endless corruption symbolized by the duct-taped banana artwork, colliding with a SuperRare competition, prompted me to enter. The 'everyone wins a prize' culture is lame, but I feel that just creating this piece was a win in itself. Good luck to others trying to lace their pieces with more meaning:
In I’m-Potency, artist VESA presents a sharp satire on Western society’s spiritual flaccidity. By replacing Adam's reaching finger with a limp, taped banana—a nod to Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian—this piece reflects the decay of a culture that once held itself as a beacon of enlightenment but has now veered into absurdity. Michelangelo’s Adam famously reaches toward God with a finger that isn’t fully extended, symbolizing humanity's hesitation and the delicate gift of free will. In this reimagining, Adam’s once-restrained reach becomes even more compromised, transformed into a limp banana pointing downward. It’s as if Western culture, once brimming with creative potential, is now resigned to existential apathy, unable or unwilling to reach for anything beyond itself.
The so-called enlightenment, from a religious perspective, has proven to be the opposite. What was supposed to illuminate has, in many ways, left the soul in darkness, severing society from any genuine higher purpose. The promise of reason and progress has come at the cost of collective meaning. In a world that’s all intellect and no spirit, we’re left with art that’s lost its potency, just as a banana loses its freshness once taped to a wall.
This decline in values is further exacerbated by a fiat-driven economy that has eroded academia, trusted institutions, media, and culture at large. With endless money printing, these pillars of society have become little more than extensions of those controlling the financial system, trading integrity for the promise of limitless funding. It’s a system that keeps art—and culture itself—hanging by duct tape, barely holding together while the rot sets in, inflating value but erasing meaning. In this environment, Bitcoin emerges as a counterbalance, a form of sound money that offers a return to grounded value and integrity, at least a partial answer to our spiritual and cultural malaise.
Yet, in a world eager to redefine itself, this symbol of a flaccid banana has the potential to be turned completely on its head, helping us recognize the emerging creative potential now arising in the global art scene. The recent cultural shift, as seen when the cultural elite lost the last U.S. election, signals a new openness to perspectives previously left out of the conversation. There are over 200 philosophies, 4,300 religions, the STEM perspective, the working class, the dwindling middle class, stay-at-home moms, free speech activists, and countless others who remain largely underserved by the creative space. The cancel culture of the last decade has left the entire creative community on high alert about what can or cannot be said—what can or cannot be expressed. Now, however, as the status quo is challenged, art has a chance to engage these diverse voices and foster a space where new ideas can flourish. This artwork invites us to reconsider what’s truly valuable, urging a return to something more grounded, more sacred, and ultimately, more alive.
This text accompanies the artwork as part of VESA's submission, given that there are likely very few art critics—either in the web3 space or the broader art world—sophisticated enough to interpret the work as intended. This serves as the final part of the critique that this artwork presents, at least for now. Have fun with it. Go bananas.
If bought for list price, will include a physical print painted on top and the work will launch an AR animation via the artivive app.
