Brownells Revolutionizes Modern Art With JOKE-AR (For Charity!)

Simply sublime!

The “smart set” is going gaga over a banana duct-taped to a wall. Brownells just did them one better.

This past week, a fresh new artistic concept has burst forth, Athena-like, from the forehead of Modern Art: a banana duct-taped to a wall. (No, we’re not kidding. Look here.) As tout le monde loses their pointy little têtes over the “Art Basel Banana,” the good folks at Brownells upped the ante with their latest creation, titled “The Joke-AR.” This piece is a many-faceted gem, sure to electrify your next soirée with the Smart Set (or at least offer you many opportunities to obnoxiously correct any guests who call it a “banana clip”).

If you’re hoping to join the demimonde, you’ll want to whip out your wallet and act fast. Brownells’ latest work of artistic genius is limited to only 10 signed and numbered copies, for the piddling price of $1,200 each. Those 12 bills buy you, the connoisseur, a Brownells AR-15 magazine, hand-painted banana yellow, affixed to a white background with a strip of silvery tape. In addition to the stunned envy of your friends, you’ll also bask in the knowledge that the sale of your banana-yellow piece o’fart goes to support Special Operations Wounded Warriors – a 501 (c) (3) charitable organization dedicated to helping Purple Heart recipients of the US Special Operations community.

If holiday shopping has left your cupboards a bit bare, fear not: To commemorate the Joke-AR, Brownells will also offer the Brownells ARt shirt, emblazoned with a high-quality image of the Joke-AR sculpture. Based on the sculpture, the Brownells ARt shirt bears a stylized image of the yellow magazine taped to a wall on the front, and a fruit-inspired Brownells logo on the back. The retail price on this limited-edition tee is $19.99–a small price to pay for genius.

But before you eschew the original sculpture, check out Brownells’ catalog copy…eat your heart out, Sotheby’s and Christie’s!

The original inspiration for the Brownells ARt Shirt, the limited-edition artwork is a stark yet compelling abstraction, perfect for display in avant-garde galleries, tastefully-appointed libraries, gun rooms and basements everywhere.

Painstakingly handcrafted one at time, each piece will include one Brownells  AR-15 magazine – masterfully spray painted the color of ripe tropical fruit – affixed to a blank white background by a strip of metallic duct tape.

Oriented to enhance the perception of tension and to give the impression of upward flight, the juxtaposition of the bright, almost-edible yellow underneath the stark interrupting slash of industrial silver tape is both jarring yet soothing.

The Joke-AR tacitly reminds the viewer of the importance of the AR-15 and the Second Amendment, as well as tasty bananas and the tape often employed by HVAC professionals and clever handymen to improve our daily lives.

Each sculpture will be marked by small, individual differences, as expected with small batch, handcrafted art.

As a connoisseur of modern art, I should caution the reader against forgeries. Yes, it may look like some wag saw the Art Basel Banana and saw an opportunity to raise money for charity using nothing more than a sense of humor, a spray can, and a roll of duct tape. However, I assure you that only the finest craftsmen and artistic minds can produce the work of staggering genius pictured above, so be alert to imitators!