Poor Anish Kapoor, first he was banned from buying British artist Stuart Semple‘s pinkest paint in the world called, well, PINK. And now Semple has released a new product—and further retort to Kapoor—the world’s most glittery glitter: Diamond Dust.
It all started when Kapoor secured exclusive rights to the world’s blackest black, a substance called Vantablack, which was created using carbon nanotubes. Though Kapoor makes a fairly strong case for his Vantablack deal, some artists felt it was a little unfair that he wasn’t sharing.
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Jokingly, this prompted Semple to start selling his extremely pink pigment, which he had been developing for years, with one caveat: that you had better not be Anish Kapoor, who wasn’t allowed to purchase it. People buying it even had to make a legal declaration at the online checkout to confirm they were not the Indian-born British sculptor, which they will also have to do when buying the glitter.
Semple decided on returning with the “world’s most glittery glitter” because, well, it’s the festive season and also because if something is a success, which the pinkest paint was, then you might as well try and repeat it—and quick. Semple claims his glitter is “the most reflective natural art material in existence” and it contains actual shards of glass, so use with caution. “This isn’t any normal glitter! The high-grade glass used is almost perfectly clear (99.8% clarity) and we’ve cut it into random shards that reflect light at multiple angles.” explains Semple. “This makes it the most sparkly natural glitter on the planet!”
Semple developed the glitter with a British chemical company that works with glass flake in concrete coatings for architecture. Like PINK, it has been in development over a number of years, eight specifically, as the artist uses it in his own work.
Speaking about the response to PINK, Semple said. “I’m totally blown away by what I’ve seen. It’s gone completely viral. People are dying their hair with it, painting furniture with it, making paintings, textiles, and even lipstick! It proves to me how important it is to share good materials with the community, because that’s how creativity progresses. The whole thing started off as a bit of a joke, but it’s taken on a life of its own. However, even though the PINK has spread far and wide, Anish still hasn’t shared his black! So, we need to up the ante. He’ll never have seen this one coming and he’s not getting a grain of this glitter until he stops acting like such a rotter and shares the mega black!”
You can find out more about Diamond Dust at Stuart Semple’s website here.
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Anish Kapoor is Banned From Buying the World’s Pinkest Paint