The Art of Onion Futures
Posted on March 15, 2020
Description:
I do not appreciate when people refer to KmikeyM as an "art project" because, while I love art, KmikeyM is my actual real life. To label it art is to separate it from real life and frame it as only a performance, or a protest, or a stunt.
But now, I offer a proposal to create a performance, a protest, and a stunt by turning financial crime into art.
I intend to grow onions and sell "futures" in those onions — contracts that allow a buyer to lock in a certain price now for delivery of onions later. Selling those futures contracts will violate the federal law known as the Onions Futures Act, which bans trading of futures contracts on onions and on motion picture box office receipts. (I’m not making this up, go read it yourself!) Collaborating with my friend and shareholder, the artist Norberto Rodriguez, we will document the process and present the results as art.
This is a case where art makes economic sense. Art creates cultural value, and the physical manifestation of that cultural value can be traded. The art market is big business. There is also a precedent of hiding from the effects of criminal prosecution by making art. For example, of the many performances by Chris Burden he was never convicted of a crime (but was arrested once).
At the end of last year, I wrote about my obsession with onion futures and a few weeks ago I planted a number of Walla Walla and Gladstone onion seeds (see them grow on my live stream). But the next step is the criminal part. To create and sell the futures contracts.
RESULT OF A YES VOTE: If the shareholders vote yes I will, as an artistic endeavor, create and sell futures contracts for my onion crop. I will facilitate the trading of these contracts and I will deliver my onions to them at the time specified in the contract. I will also work with Norberto to document all aspects of the process and generate physical products which can be displayed and sold in an art setting.
RESULT OF A NO VOTE: I will grow my onions for myself, and then cook them and eat them.
