Introduction

In an episode of Sex and the City called ‘The caste system’, a young, good-looking man is approached by the art gallery director Charlotte when she recognizes him as a famous actor. He turns to the gallery wall and says, “How much for this piece?” Slightly confused, Charlotte responds: “The fire extinguisher?” Then, getting the gist of what is happening, she says, “Oh, no, no, no. That's a real fire extinguisher, for the gallery … in case there's fire.” The actor just laughs, confidently responding, “I guess I’m a total idiot.” Charlotte placates him by saying, “Don't worry, it happens all the time … you can take it and say you got it from the gallery, and people will probably think it's a Jeff Koons.”

It seems that anything on the wall of a gallery can be classified as art. It is the internal struggles of the institutions of the art field and its symbolic power that defines what is legitimated as art. This is an example of how struggles in fields can metamorphize the meaning of things by assembling the cultural arbitrary into cultural hierarchies. But let's unpack this exchange a bit more: Charlotte instantly recognizes the young, handsome man as a rich and famous actor, Wylie Ford. Seconds later they are getting it on in the back of his limo, despite Charlotte having a historic character arc of being rather conservative in her sexual relationships. He then calls her by the wrong name, but she does not care. A few scenes later Charlotte feels used up by the vapidity and emptiness of this celebrity encounter and opts out. In their first encounter, Charlotte responds to the actor in a way that avoids being condescending. She is quite obviously ‘affected’ by being up close to a celebrity. He reacts to his mistake without the slightest embarrassment, laughs at the irony of the situation and moves straight into pick-up mode: the social magic of immense symbolic capital. With exceedingly good looks and money to burn, the actor symbolizes access to all kinds of illusio that are desired in late capitalism.