As part of an ongoing bid to get his hands on Vantablack, the super dark, light-absorbing material to which Anish Kapoor controversially has the exclusive license, artist Stuart Semple has legally changed his name to… Anish Kapoor.

 

“It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time,” Semple told me. “I like the idea of being able to try a name on and see how it feels, and test what the ownership of a name means, I suppose.”

As a piece of performance art, the name change serves as a way to explore ideas of ownership and authorship.

It is also the latest salvo in Semple’s color wars, as he seeks to fight what he calls “color hoarding,” in which an individual or company asserts the exclusive right to the use of a particular color or shade. (He’s also called out Mattel Barbie pink, Tiffany blue, and Cadbury purple, among others.) –Sarah Cascone (artnet)