“High Grade is the term used for the fish kept during the practice of selective harvesting. The practice of high grading allows fishers to get higher prices for their limited catch but is extremely environmentally destructive because many of the fish returned to the water die. The same rules apply to the selective harvesting behaviour of the dealers/collectors of art at the highest levels. What makes one fish more desirable to harvest than another? If it is just the Dover sole that is constantly promoted by the waiter in your favourite restaurant then that is what you will order every time. This behavioural process then perpetuates the decrease in value of various other types of fish while increasing the value of this “preferred” one. Exactly the same thing happens in the art world and Hollywood where the clear homogenised trends relate much more to profit than to the notion of what art and creativity can be about. I think it is more important than ever to make work that doesn’t conform to these constructs.”
