I live in Minneapolis, MN which apart from the cold winters is a pretty good place to live. (I think something like 99.5% of the worlds inhabitants live in places with a higher mean temperature than here. Shows how tough we are.) Anyway, Minneapolis' modern art museum, the Walker, recently moved into a new building and I read that attendance figures are flat despite the change.
I do not enjoy most modern art. I do enjoy looking at the metamechanics of Jean Tinguely (for short periods of time) and I think a lot of "kinetic art" is pretty interesting.
Anyway, I see where you can buy an SKF self aligning ball bearing from New York's MOMA here, for about $180. Now, I've always thought ball bearings are pretty cool, even from a purely esthetic viewpoint, MOMA charges $180 for a 4-inch diameter bearing which exemplifies for me the disconnect between the modern art world and the real world.
Before I rant too much, maybe this is some special artistic rendition, but the normal cost of a 4-inch bearing, at say, McMaster Carr is probably around $30.
I don't know the exact nature of this bearing, but the closest comparable bearing I can find at McMaster-Carr is bearing 2307 on page 1052 of their current catalog: it's $118.37, and it's closer to 3" across rather than 4". That doesn't seem like too high of a markup to me.
ReplyDeleteSome high-precision bearings used commonly in industry cost well over $1000 each. Not that these museum bearings are likely to be as well machined as those... (I only know because a fellow employee mistakenly sold several dozen $1400 bearings on ebay for $10 each in a "buy it now" auction, because to him they looked like ordinary $30.00 bearings- needless to say, our boss was not pleased!)
ReplyDeleteIt isn't necessarily the markup that accounts for the price, high quality bearings can go for thousands.
ReplyDeleteI always trust the experts when ordering bearings, Martin at http://www.halifaxbearings.com/ is always helpful.
Take a look at an old, ordinary and familiar thing around you, something like a pencil, an eraser, a can, or a cup. Now, let your imagination play. Move the object around. What shape does it have? What color or feel? Do these qualities remind you of anything else? Imagine a whole different use for the thing. What pieces would you have to add to change the old thing into something different? Now you’re thinking like a junque artist!Dennis has turned a drinking cup upside down, welded the “teeth” of a dump rake on it for the legs, and used worn out pieces from a soybean extruder for the eyes. The end product? A bug!
ReplyDeleteDennis finds that ball bearings make good eyes. He has used the moldboard of a plow to create the body for a goose and the top part of a stanchion for the goose’s head and neck.