For a recent group show presented by his dealers, Fine Arts Sydney, Australian artist Matthew Griffin plucked a pickle from a McDonald’s cheeseburger and slapped it on the ceiling of Michael Lett Gallery in Auckland, New Zealand. The piece is just the size of a quarter, but comes with a price tag worth much more: $6,200. Drawing on a long history of mordant ready-mades, from Marcel Duchamp’s 1917 “Fountain” urinal to the $120,000 banana Maurizio Cattelan taped to the wall of an Art Basel Miami booth in 2019, Griffin’s “Pickle” is meant to stoke conversations about “the way value and meaning is generated between people,” said Fine Arts Sydney director Ryan Moore. The lucky buyer of Griffin’s artwork won’t be given the exact pickle, but rather instructions for how to recreate the artwork in their own space—a gesture that elevates the object beyond those that could be found on any McDonald’s ceiling. Click the link in our bio to read more from Taylor Dafoe (@tddafoe) on #ArtnetNews. __ Pictured: (1) Matthew Griffin, Pickle (2022). Courtesy of Fine Arts Sydney; (2) Matthew Griffin’s “Pickle” (2022) on the ceiling of Michael Lett Gallery in Auckland, New Zealand. Courtesy of Fine Arts, Sydney.