Sir

In his Opinion piece 'Message from the heavens' (Nature 453, 1185; 2008), Martin Kemp tries to discern the meaning behind Maurizio Cattelan's shocking sculpture of Pope John Paul II felled by a meteorite. Although acknowledging that this sculpture has much in common with Marcel Duchamp's anti-art, he proceeds to provide a range of possible interpretations that include seeing it as an allegory of the conflict between Darwinists and those with spiritual beliefs.

As the artist himself has chosen to remain silent on the topic (maybe wisely so), perhaps one should view this kind of art as a successful attempt simply to attract attention. Attention is such an important resource that people (scientists included) are willing to forsake financial gain to secure it. From this perspective, Cattelan's work fits an artistic tradition exemplified by people like Duchamp and Andy Warhol: masters at putting together pieces whose sole purpose was to grab our attention.

In a world increasingly awash with 'content creators' and the all-too-human limited attention we can devote to them, I see this work as a superb attempt to generate novelty and shock — to make us sit up and concentrate, even if only fleetingly.