No Body Better...

No Body Better...

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In 2008, Cheyenne Seeley spent $300.00 on a single Butterfinger candy
bar, through the process of repurchasing the same candy bar at different gas
stations and grocery stores. Due to the fact that these establishments use the
same PLU system, Seeley was able to present the same candy bar at each
unsuspecting business with the presumption that it was apart of their
inventory. Through this process Seeley was able to bestow a greater economic
worth to the object.

This Butterfinger with the accumulated receipts from each sales transaction
became; "300 Dollars Worth of Candy Bar". The work was part of a larger series
of investigations, which coincided with the Bud and Betty Micheels Student
Artist in Residence Program, and was chosen to be included in the Swanson
Learning Center and University Library's permanent collection. "300 Dollars
Worth of Candy Bar" remained in the University Library until April of 2009,
when Miss Seeley requested to use the work for a presentation. For reasons
unknown the work was never requested back by the University Library nor
returned by the artist. The Butterfinger candy bar thus remained in the
artist's hands until it came into my possession.

Cheyenne Seeley and I were romantically involved for approximately two
years during our undergraduate studies, and remained living together until her
departure to graduate school in spring 2010. Because of strenuous circumstances
many of her belongings were left in my possession including the Butterfinger
candy bar.

My primary interest in appropriating Cheyenne Seeley's
"300 Dollars Worth of Candy Bar" derives from the diminished state of the work
in its original context, and the specificity of my interpersonal relations with
the artist. Through my appropriation I am reestablishing the economic and
social worth of Miss Seeley's Butterfinger, and extending the myth surrounding
the work by instigating a continuation of its narrative. The title; "Nobody
Better..." both constitutes the threat inherent in the fragility of the original
work and plays into the humorous parallel between my actions and the coined
slogan for the Butterfinger candy bar. "Nobody better lay a finger on my
Butterfinger." The question of what is just or right becomes secondary to
recognition of value. Through the destruction/ consummation of the original
work the significance of the object is reaffirmed and something new is brought
forward. This is not meant to be an endgame, but a resurrection of something
dormant and a continued conversation with my peers about the fluctuation and
variation of art in contemporary context.

Artist

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No Body Better...
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