Store Buyout: Artists Purchase Every Single Thing at Hercules Fancy Grocery in West Village

The Fusion Arts Museum on Manhattan's Lower East Side has a new exhibit entitled "Store Buyout: The Art of Convenience," which started with artist Kyle MacDonald and his crew entering the West Village's Hercules Fancy Grocery with a briefcase full of cash. They inform the man behind the counter that they want everything -- to his astonishment -- as in all of the products available for purchase. (The cooler of ice cream looks especially dreamy today.) And voila: art.

Now there's a website where the public can get in on the Warhol-style commerce vibe, purchasing something like a pack of Orbit gum, put in a display case and renamed "Temptations of a Chronic Masticator." The description says "it became a popular device to swap between twenty-something singles as a precursor to sexual intercourse," and it costs $69 ;)

Some Tums will run you $50 and two Red Bulls ("Human Battery") are $100, in an edition of 13.

The scam (or is it?) is easier to stomach if you watch the video, but we'll mostly credit E.L.O. for that.

[via Animal NY]