Have you ever looked at a piece of art that sold for a few million dollars and thought “I could’ve done that”? There doesn’t seem to be anything technically sophisticated about the piece and you could use the money. I was fortunate enough to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) and The Whitney. One piece that sticks out vividly in my mind would be the artist who literally canned his own feces. It was a commentary on something that we all do, something that connects all humans, all animals really. It is something natural but at the same time something private that we are taught not to speak of. And it is a symbolic representation of the notion that society seeks to com-modify everything, including one famous artist’s excrement.

Nine Jackies is a piece that is a shows three row of three pictures of Jackie Kennedy. In the first she is smiling and perfectly poised. This is the Jackie that everyone gets to see, the one who shows up to State dinners and the like. The second is her accompanying her husband’s body off the plane, looking shell-chocked. And finally we have her some time later, still clearly in mourning. Now the piece is almost like a car accident in slow motion. You see it progressing, knowing what’s coming, but it doesn’t make it any less heart wrenching to see. This piece is about when the public life and private life of the subject has become messy.

While she is privately mourning the loss of her husband, her husband happens to be the President, which makes her emotional response a matter of national importance. She should be able to be the same woman she was in the first set of photos, but she cannot. And though I was not around during the Kennedy administration, I can imagine how this would’ve felt for someone who was to see. Politicians and celebrities usually seem so far removed from us that it’s hard to remember that they’re people as well. And in the moment, Mrs. Kennedy seem more vulnerable. Like you could go up to her and say “I’m sorry” and that’s the beauty of the piece.

The thing about these pieces is that you might be able to create the image on canvas, maybe you would even do a good job. But you have no way of doing so with the same intent or try to convey the same meaning that the actual artist envisioned. People aren’t just paying for something to hang on their wall, they’re paying for the statement the piece is making.