Up In Arms

The art world is once again the subject of controversy after an Australian performance artist named Stelios Arcadiou has had an ear grafted onto his forearm, claiming it’s an augmentation of the body’s form. Apparently he’s hoping to pop a microphone in it to allow others to listen to what the extra ear picks up, though his antics have understandably drawn harsh criticism from those people who regard the lack of medical need for a non-functioning ear on a limb as being ethically questionable.

My beef with it is that it’s such a waste of time, money and surgeons’ expertise. It merely illustrates the great lengths to which unimaginative people will go to execute what is a particularly boring idea. Still, it gets his name in the papers, which given the mundaneness of the premise, you have to assume is his primary aim.

Perhaps Mr Arcadiou can be encouraged to continue his theme and undertake a secondary operation in order to graft a penis squarely into the centre of his forehead.