What Do Detroit and London Have in Common?

There were two leitmotifs that coursed through Frieze Week in London, one being (as the Art Newspaper also noted) the automobile.

Richard Prince's bright yellow Dodge, specially commissioned for the fair, was displayed on a rotating pedestal as a woman dressed in denim shorts and a pink bikini top polished it. This seemed to elicit two types of reactions: bemused confusion — as in, what is this car display doing at an art fair? — and total captivation — primarily drooling young men.

There was Michael Riedel's Saab, a conceptual piece at David Zwirner, as mentioned here. It sold for a reported £30,000. And Phillips de Pury & Company had a Mini Cooper covered in Damien Hirst's colorful spots in its Saturday auction of contemporary art. Priced at £400,000 - £600,000, it found no takers.

What does it all mean? It seems to be a critique of the business of art, which, in some cases, has become not unlike the business of selling cars to wealthy individuals who want status symbols.