Banana Duct Tape Art Trio, the Missing Banana by Tamassia Martns
Digitial Art (20 x 16 inches)
When Maurizio Cattelan taped a banana to a wall and titled it Comedian, also referred to as the banana duct tape art, I wanted to have a little fun with what might happen if that famous banana suddenly disappeared.
The first piece in the series begins right there, with a recreation of Cattelan’s Comedian, a banana duct-taped to the wall, except that the banana is gone. All that remains is the duct tape, still partially stuck to the wall, with the top half peeled away and hanging down, as though someone had just pulled it back to remove the banana.
And so, Maurizio’s bananaless Comedian becomes the starting point for the three pieces that follow.
From there, I created a three-piece series that turns the banana’s disappearance into a playful visual Pop Art story, while paying homage to some of my favorite pop artists: Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein, and Andy Warhol.
For each piece, I pulled recognizable elements from some of the artists’ most celebrated work and reimagined them as part of one continuous scene, a three-piece sequence I call Banana Duct Tape Trio, the Missing Banana. Together with the opening piece, they form a four-piece series telling the story of the missing banana.
The story begins with Keith Haring, borrowing from his unmistakable dancing figures and the red heart imagery that appears throughout his work. His energetic figures gather around the now-empty Comedian, reacting to the banana’s disappearance and pointing us toward Andy.
From there, I move into the world of Roy Lichtenstein and his comic-like Pop Art, drawing directly from his famous In the Car. The composition, bold comic-book lines, and dramatic narrative style become the next chapter of the story, as the suspicion continues to point to Andy.
Even with the new dialogue, I wanted the language to stay as true as possible to the tone and phrasing of Lichtenstein’s original work, so it would still feel like it belongs in his world.
And finally, we arrive at Andy Warhol.
For the third piece in the trio, I brought together two of Warhol’s most recognizable subjects: Marilyn Monroe and the banana. Marilyn is shown eating the missing banana, combining Warhol’s iconic Marilyn imagery with his equally recognizable banana artwork, which brings the entire series full circle back to Maurizio Cattelan’s banana artwork.
The series begins with the banana’s disappearance from Cattelan’s Comedian, with the banana removed, leaving just an empty piece of duct tape on a wall, then travels backward through the visual language of Pop Art, using some of the most recognizable works from three of the greatest pop artists of all time, and ultimately ends up in the hands of the artist who had already turned the humble banana into an artistic icon decades earlier.
One banana.
Four legendary artists.
Four pieces connecting Pop Art’s past with conceptual art today.
