And then there was the time he made an apple out of solid gold. To be precise, 103.559 ounces of 22-carat gold, melted and poured into the mould of an apple bought from a fruit shop for 25 cents.
Billy Apple, who has died aged 85, was a conceptual artist and as such an ideas man - getting others to do the work was a great idea in itself, but the concept of a golden apple was all his own work, his own inspired thinking. The story of Apple's apple and its surprise ending serves as a poignant tribute to the manufacturer of some of New Zealand's strangest works of art.
It began at a dinner party in Takapuna in 1983. Apple, who owned a Porsche, was friendly with car dealer Jonathan Gooderham. One of Gooderham's neighbours – he lived just a few houses away in a beachfront mansion – shared their interest in motorsports. They all got to talking over dinner at Gooderham's home. The third man was none other than Ray Smith, a name synonymous with greed and financial ruin as experienced in Auckland in the 1980s; Smith was chairman of Goldcorp, which collapsed a year after the Black Monday crash of '87. Angry creditors, bankruptcy, jailtime for Smith…But one thing survived, a rather beautiful souvenir of that decade of excess – the Golden Apple.
The artist got others to make the mould and melt the gold. It was unveiled at the Auckland Coin and Bullion Exchange, and sold to a private owner for $85,000. At the time, it was the most expensive artwork made by a living New Zealand artist.