Surprise, controversy and a little free publicity, in art world with a surprise favourite for this year’s  Turner Prize.

Initially, the piece appears as an uninteresting piece of used cardboard. Arranged in flat form, this 8′ x 10′ representation presents as carelessly thrown away. It’s palely lit by a distant, flickering, fluorescent light and, currently, on display in a rear service corridor at The State of It Gallery. 

However, the finer detail reveals a deeper truth. The artist evokes utilitarian functionalism with the spiritual, rendering shades of brown to remind us of the futility of existence.

Art patron Charlie Satchel, said the work showed, “Great vision and understanding of the disposability of the modern world, and we are proud to represent and showcase this exciting new artist. The stark beauty of the work lies in its potentiality, what it will it be next?”.

The artist, Ron Penfold, said, “Well, I delivered an Amazon parcel to the gallery, some geezer opened it and give me the packaging. Not my job to get rid of it so I chucked it on the floor. Next thing I know this twat with a cravat wanders down and starts bangin’ on about how wonderful this bit of cardboard was. He must have been off his meds or something. I was going to tell him to sling it, when he said it was worth £30,000, well you can’t turn down that kind of dough.”

When asked about his next piece, he replied, “I don’t know, I’ve some rubble in my back yard, that do you?”

Critics claim, it’s an old trick to take something of no artistic merit and praise it as genius in order to generate publicity for something most people couldn’t give two hoots for. Either that or this is another example of the art world disappearing up its own chuff.