Strebe covered the stone with a carbon nanotube (CNT) coating – which has been scientifically determined to be ‘the blackest black ever created’ – in order to render it imperceptible to the naked eye against a black background. Next to the blacked out diamond is a rotating 360-degree image of the diamond, in its usual cut and polished state.
The stone, which is owned by natural fancy colour diamond company LJ West Diamonds, is valued at $2 million and was loaned to Strebe specifically for the art piece, which has been named ‘The Redemption of Vanity’.
Several jewellers rejected the opportunity to take part in the project before LJ West Diamonds president Larry West accepted the offer. West personally selected the yellow diamond due to its large size, brightness, colour and brilliance.
Strebe explained that the project represents the “unification of extreme opposites” because both the diamond and the nanotube coating are made from the same material – carbon – but one reflects light while the other almost completely absorbs it.
“We see that a diamond, while made of the very same element (carbon), performs the most intense reflection of light on earth. Because of the extremely high light absorptive qualities of the CNTs, any object, in this case a large diamond coated with CNTs, becomes a kind of black hole absent of shadows,” she said in a statement.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) developed the coating; Strebe is an artist in residency at the university.
She added that the piece is also a comment on the idea of inherent value: “The project explores material and immaterial value attached to objects and concepts in reference to luxury, society and to art. We are presenting the literal devaluation of a diamond, which is highly symbolic and of high economic value.”
‘The Redemption of Vanity’ is on display at the New York Stock Exchange until 25 November and is available for viewing by appointment only.
IMAGE GALLERY
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