Story 361: Masterpiece

This is the sixth day of seven days in which an earlier story is repeated. Today it is Story 361: “Masterpiece”. It was first posted on 26 January 2016.

Isabelle won the prestigious art award. Her submission was entitled Oh kinaesthetic and forever tomorrow. It was a fabulously longish title for such an original piece.

The judges were astounded. Their decision was unanimous. See how the art work changes from one viewing to another! See how there can be no single-only original version; each “copy” is the original version! See how the work reflects aspects of each person who contemplates it!

The masterpiece was simply each person’s blank computer screen. Every screen displayed a different arrangement of similar things: different arrangements of fly dirt, and sneeze globules, and fingerprints, and smears! It was a living work of art. People began doing all sorts of things in front of their computer screens in order to add to the value and “inner statement” of their “original”. One enterprising interpreter actually turned the screen on! Electric! An electrifying interpretation! Another took a selfie with the inbuilt cam. Was that interpretation not bordering on being slightly too Robert Mapplethorpe? Another entrepreneur (one could not use the word artist as it was simply a variation of Isabelle’s masterpiece) managed to stuff their entire computer screen inside a greatly stretched condom. Oh the waste! The squandering of a perfectly good piece of rubber! There was no way in hell it could be recycled – which was the point they were trying to make: “Recycle your raincoat”.

Isabelle planned to go to the Caribbean on the prize-money, to gather inspiration for further works. She accepted the prize with humility: “Thank you,” she said, with that noble simplicity born of greatness. “Thank you to every person in the world. You know who you are.”