Bananas and Bridges

          Today, I ate a banana.  It was delicious.  But even more than that, it was a delicious, asexual work of art.  The bananas we consume today are all identical descendants of a single parent banana tree.  Because bananas don’t have seeds, they cannot be planted to grow banana trees.  Humans have been cultivating banana plants for centuries, splitting and splicing and replanting them.  Without humans, this plant would definitely not be as populous as it is today.  I am suggesting that the banana, although a living thing all on its own, is a currently and forever will be a product of human manipulation.  It exists because we desire it, and we allow, it to thrive.  Therefore, the banana is a work of art.

The Life of a Banana

          Although beautiful and skillfully created, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California is not a work of art (for this blog).  Its sole purpose is to function practically for commuters.  It was created to get people from San Francisco to Marin faster than by ferry, because ferry traffic was too heavy. The bridge is utilized because of its practicality.  Because it is used for functional purposes, the physical bridge itself is not a work of art (Notice how I left its iconography out of this thesis).  You wouldn’t call a blender in your kitchen a work of art, nor would you call your ordinary public toilet a work of art.  

The most objective picture I could find