michael goldberg
From the high ceiling of the darkened gallery space, a man's voice explained patiently how one could prudently invest one's savings. To the right of an IKEA-style 'workstation' were black vinyl couches and chairs, a coffee table, and some business magazines-the notation of an office. A flipchart documented a series of transactions, buys and sells, the time at which they were placed carefully recorded. One wall displayed a large coloured chart: stock movements. It was not one of Michael Goldberg's scheduled performance times, and there were no lounging clients in this reception area, leafing through copies of BRW. It was quiet; there was nothing to see.
According to the catalogue, catchingafallingknife.com follows an earlier piece of Goldberg's on the subject of gold, in which he monitored and charted the price of Newcrest Mining Company shares and the gold price. In catchingafallingknife.com, Goldberg decided to focus on Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, a global media player well known to the average Australian 'mums-and-dads' shareholder, which, with a market cap (as of writing, 24 February) of $22,930 million and a weighting of over 3 per cent in the S&P ASX 100 index, 1 'exerts a major influence' domestically, and affects the international market. Goldberg was given $50 ,000 by a 'consortium' to play with-he would buy and sell News Corp, attempting to make a profit, during the period of the show. Buys and sells would be executed via phone call through a 'bricks-and-mortar' broker, not an on line discount broker.
Goldberg's website of the same name, www.catchingafallingknife.com, remains available long after the installation component has closed. The site features exchanges with the 'consortium' and the 'audience'. The audience 'conversations' are strikingly banal -