As is probably stated somewhere in the theory of infinity, if you give an infinite amount of monkeys an infinite number of old-timey Polaroid cameras, one will eventually take “artistic” blurry photos of historical sites in Moscow which will then be auctioned at Sotheby’s for an estimated $75,000 – $100,000.
Fortunately for every simian art fan with a spare $100k, we are currently living in the very universe in which that concept is reality. Eighteen photographs by — and of — Mikki The Chimpanzee are going to auction on June 5. According to Hyperallergic:
They include both Mikki’s clarity-challenged captures of Moscow’s Red Square and other city sights, as well as documentation of Mikki learning to use a polaroid, analogue, and antique large-format camera with Russian-born American conceptual artists Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid.
Mikki, who was rescued from the circus by Komar and Melamid, is a visionary monkey. According to Suad Garayeva, the curator of contemporary art at Sotheby’s, he does actually understand what the hell is going on. As a matter of fact, after seeing his prints he “got quite excited with the results” and probably starting jumping around and hooting in a typical monkey fashion.