CJ Hendry rejects the ‘high-end' art world. Maybe that's why her works sell for $300k
Everything old is new again is not just a song written by the late Peter Allen. It's also a concept embodied, in more ways than one, by another great Australian export.
CJ Hendry has built a cult following with her hyperrealistic reinterpretations of the ordinary, elevating sneakers, wigs, crumpled-up dollar bills and more from bric-à-brac to priceless works of art. But the fact the South African-born, Brisbane-raised, self-described 'bogan' had to move overseas to cultivate her years-long waitlist is a symptom of a centuries-long debate.
'What I find interesting about the art world [is] it's so high end, it's so unattainable, it's so unrealistic ... and why I love drawing everyday objects is because they're just so ordinary, and they're so attainable for everyone,' Hendry says before a babbling three-year-old temporarily takes over our meeting.
It's 8pm in New York City, where Hendry has lived for 10 years, most recently with her partner and their three children in Brooklyn. Unperturbed by her toddler now climbing all over her, Hendry – who notably secured pre-controversies Kanye West as an early client by side-stepping galleries and going direct to consumers with social media – powers on.
'I'm just a normal cat who likes really basic things, and what I like is spending extraordinary amounts of time like elevating them to a point that they shouldn't really be elevated,' Hendry says. 'These are just plastic bags, which are worthless, and so you're kind of taking something worthless and making them into like, $200,000, $300,000 works of art.'
Do not balk at that price tag, nor use it to label Hendry a hypocrite. After all, not everyone needs to pay it for a Hendry original to come into their possession.
Last year, Hendry sent swathes on a scavenger hunt across Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne for limited-edition wheelie bins. That came six years after the quest for her infamous ' Copyright Infringement – Trash Only ' mystery T-shirt boxes, randomly scattered across The Big Apple for fans to find and keep for free following Hendry receiving a threat of being sued 'to Timbuktu'. They can now fetch enterprising culture vultures hundreds of dollars on eBay.
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