Megan Garber’s article “The Most Expensive GIF of All Time Is Being Sold for $5,800” explores the relationship between Jeff Koons’ piece titled Balloon Dog and Michael Green’s GIF animating Balloon Dog. Koons’ piece, Balloon Dog was sold for $58.4 million, which at the time it was sold was the most expensive art piece created by a living artist, until another one of his pieces, Rabbit. After Jeff Koons’ art sold for so much Michael Green, a digital artist, created a GIF of Koons’ Balloon Dog by creating multiple digital images of it and combining them together to make a single GIF. Green named his GIF Balloon Dog Deflated and proceeded to post it on ebay for $2,000. People were not interested in his GIF and it was not selling, so Green upped his price to $5,800 hoping that would catch the attention of the art world.
The topic of Balloon Dog is a controversial one to start with; to add Michael Green’sGIF to the conversation is slightly hysterical. A lot of art stems from inspiration and the use of other art works to help improve and generate ideas for your own. In the art world, the line between copying and using art as inspiration is very thin. Green used the most expensive piece of art at the time and made his own twist to it, while then trying to sell it as the most expensive GIF of all time. Another big debate around Green’s GIF is the price he is trying to sell it for. It’s comical, if not laughable, that Green increased his price $2800 to $5800 from the original selling price of $2000. My guess is that Green doesn’t expect to sell his GIF and he’s making a mockery of the $58.4 million Balloon Dog was sold for; however, in Green’s ebay description of Balloon Dog Deflated, he talks about the death of museums and physical art as we know it and the birth of the cloud. Balloon Dog Deflated signifies this death. In analyzing Garber’s article I realized the influence social media has on everything, especially art. This GIF got all the attention through the internet, social media, and articles such as this one. It is truly amazing how art in our world changes over time.
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