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Holy Shit

We Went to See Master Sculptor Miley Cyrus's Debut Art Collection

One man's trash is Miley's treasure.

This New York Fashion Week, human thinkpiece generator Miley Cyrus made her runway debut. She, along with her craft projects-turned-jewelry collection dubbed “Dirty Hippie,” paraded down the catwalk during Jeremy Scott’s fall 2015 show, managing to overshadow the always flamboyant and eccentric designer.

The pop star’s creations, which had been highly teased on Instagram during her Bangerz tour (although none of us knew what the hell we were looking at), features weed leaf earrings, necklaces embellished with cigarettes and other characteristically badass paraphernalia that encapsulates Cyrus’ not-so-recent transition into full blown delinquency. If you’re confused as to why such an established designer would allow himself to be associated with such frivolous pieces, you’ve forgotten that last season for Moschino—a label he also heads—Scott sent models down the runway in glorified McDonalds uniforms and junk food-themed gowns. So he clearly has a good sense of humor.

Annoncering

Not unlike that Moschino collection, Miley’s art looks like it was put together by a middle school student after their first puff of purple kush. I’d like to think that that Cyrus would give this review a “Fuck yeah!” as she clearly did not set out on this endeavor to enter art history text books. The collection is comprised entirely of raver bracelets, drug bags, beadings spelling out “FUCK” and “TWERK QUEEN”—all on crazy mediums like 5-foot tall bong and a dildo adorned with a glued-on joint.

According to Cyrus, however, the source of her inspiration is much more somber. She had a shitty beginning of the year, from being stuck in a hospital to the death of her dog Floyd, and says she needed to make something therapeutic out of the junkyard of random crap she’d acquired while on tour. Plus, artistic expression has been in the girl’s blood since birth—as she plateaus in one medium of art, she twerks herself right into another.

Of course, every move Cyrus makes will be speculated and criticized vehemently by the media. Whether you love or her hate her, or even if your heartless, loveless soul feels indifferent, you can’t help but talk about everything she does. The bad reviews of her debut art collection points out—as did I—that much of it looks like a bunch of colorful rubbish glued together to be as abrasive and in-your-face as possible. They are, if nothing else, statement pieces.

Annoncering

They are also tangible artistic expressions from a girl who could sell a cup of her urine on eBay for more than I make in a week. Or year. The general public has such a bottomless hunger for celebrity culture that, regardless of its artistic credibility or brilliance, Cyrus’ work will gain more attention than that of many accomplished artists because they’ve never graced the cover of magazines, or perhaps more appropriately, tabloids. If there is a multi-million dollar business involving selling pictures of celebrities buying groceries (Celebrities are just like us!), then there sure as hell will be interest in a public figure of Cyrus’ infamy gluing a plethora of plastic shit together and releasing it as art.

But the Disney Princess-turned-Twerk-Queen-turned-eccentric sculptor at least makes it seem like she has little interest in how anyone perceives the work. She turned the massive accumulation of debris in her life into something meaningful. While it may be something for us to gawk at and debate fervently, Cyrus used it therapeutically, and doesn’t expect to become the new Jeff Koons.

That’s just another thing that sets Miley apart from her pop counterparts: While she still makes a ridiculous amount of money, her endeavors don’t seem to be financially motivated or filtered by over-protective managers. As she told V, “They say money can’t buy happiness and it’s totally true. Money can buy you a bunch of shit to glue to other shit that will make you happy, but besides that, there’s no more happiness.”

As her pop peers shy away from, Cyrus continues to punch us straight in the face with an attitude that says, “I’m human. I’m young, and I like to fuck around.” In one way or another, her gummy bears and sparkly candy wrappers, drawn together with various items fans threw to Cyrus during her performances, perfectly capture the American icon’s current stance in life and career. She’s going to do what she wants, it’s going to reap a load of attention, and she’s going to always look like she’s having more fun than the rest of us. Say what you will, but the girl won’t stop, and it’d be an awfully dull world if she did.